Argentina Stunned, 2 0-0s, and France come from Behind to Thrash Australia – World Cup Day 3 Review
By Jim James
Welcome back to the blog. The 3rd day of World Cup action is finished, and we have 4 games to unpack, as will be the case for a while now. The first games of Groups C and D happened, and there is a lot to talk about, including what may be one of the surprises of the tournament. Let’s start with Argentina-Saudi Arabia.
We all know what happened with Argentina. As much as people will clown on them, in the first half, they looked truly like a team that could win the tournament.
They were offside so often it was annoying, and they had 3 disallowed goals, the one by Lautaro Martinez more head scratching than anything. However, after that, they seemed uninspired and once the Saudi goals came in, they were shocked and couldn’t push through the defence.
Emi Martinez conceded both shots on target he faced, and none of the 3 CBs did their job well today. Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez were the only 2 standouts. Again, after the goal, they just seemed uninspired and lacking creativity.
Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, was a tale of two halves. They were bad in the first half, being unable to string multiple passes together, but after getting the lead with 2 brilliant goals, their defensive style was something to admire.
They stopped Argentina every chance they got, goalkeeper Mohammed Al-Owais got 5 saves, and came out when he needed, all successful.
Everybody was everywhere, and they all got in the way with a physical style and defense in numbers. While after they made it 2-1 the attacking threat was nonexistent, they did what they needed to, and look at the result. After that huge win, the Saudi King has declared a national holiday tomorrow. Trudeau, take notes just in case for the Belgium game.
Finally, I just want to wish Yasir Al-Shahrani well after taking the brunt of Mohammed Al-Owais’ knee deep into added time.
Next up, Denmark vs Tunisia.
The referee was huge in this fixture, with a ton of no-calls, and the time they do call something, it was an offside on Issam Jebali after he put the ball in the back of the net. There was also a clear penalty against Tunisia which wasn’t called in the 94th minute.
Denmark just looked like they missed that step throughout the game. They came into this game cocky, without too much fight, and look where it got them in a game they should have won.
Andreas Christensen was pretty well the only bright spot in this team, with 4 blocked shots, 80 accurate passes on 96% success rate, and was everywhere throughout the match.
Andreas Cornelius missed an absolute sitter in the second half. It was painful to watch. Christian Eriksen was back, but a complacent Denmark didn’t get what they should have out of this game.
Tunisia came out guns blazing. They wanted this game, clearly, and they got some points. They went to every long ball, but just ran out of steam in the second half.
Aymen Dahmen made 5 saves, and as well as good performances from Msakni and Laidouni, this seemed pretty good from Tunisia, and they may have even got a goal if they were lucky.
The penultimate game was Mexico vs Poland. We start with Poland who could have won, missing a penalty and getting many chances that they couldn’t convert.
Robert Lewandowski was surprisingly absent today, with most Poland players just being unable to get any chances to his feet.
Poland just had a blah performance in general today and played second fiddle to Mexico’s style, with only 39% possession and 2 shots on target.
Mexico were the team who deserved the win, however, and just couldn’t get past Wojciech Szczesny. They had 61% possession and were in the attacking third for a long time, but they were reluctant to shoot and again, Szczesny was a beast.
Hirving Lozano was Mexico’s main creator, netting a 7.8. However, it is quite easy to get past a left flank consisting of Nicola Zalewski and Jakub Kiwior.
Overall, it was actually quite a boring game nonetheless. Guillermo Ochoa is still a beast though.
Lastly, France vs Australia. It looked like the World Cup curse would strike again as Australia took a lead inside 10 minutes, but how wrong we were.
Adrien Rabiot scored the equalizer and assisted the go-ahead goal, netting an 8.5, also getting 5 tackles and 57 passes on an 80% success rate. Olivier Giroud scored twice, getting my MOTM and proving himself to be a great Karim Benzema replacement.
Kylian Mbappé missed a few sitters but also ended the day on a goal and an assist. He looks like he could replicate his 2018 form. Finally, Ousmane Dembélé also got an assist.
After the Australia goal, France got that wake-up call that they needed and really put themselves together. They did what I thought Argentina would do after those Saudi Arabia goals.
Australia looked excellent for the first few minutes, but couldn’t get a grip once France found their footing.
It was a bad performance for the last 70 minutes by Australia and particularly Nathaniel Atkinson and Mat Ryan, who played 5.1 and 5.9 respectively.
Those were all the games today, I hope you enjoyed reading this post. Tomorrow, Canada, Belgium, Spain, and Germany. I can’t wait. I’m Jim James, until next time.