Poland VS Argentina

Poland challenge Argentina in this Group C clash at Stadium 974 in Doha early Thursday morning Beijing time. The stakes are of sky-high here! Argentina are in a challenging situation as a result of the shocking 1-2 loss to Saudi-Arabia in the opening round. They have to win to qualify – unless Saudis and Mexico end up in a draw.. Well, they cannot rely on that anyway and must take any risk necessary later into the match if the score is level - not to mention of they are trailing. I must say that he Saudis were massively better than I, the betting market, fans or football journalists would have expected ahead of this long-waited tournament! They, in fact, played quite well as well – despite losing to Poland 0-2. The Poles only recorded a little more in expected goals: 2.34- 2.12. The Saudis even missed a penalty in the first half. Poland rely too much on Barcelona's super star Lewandowski as Milik and Zielinski in the midfield do not seem to be able to meet the (high) expectations.. This clearly frustrates Lewandowski a lot..

It is true that Argentina, not even the ”GOAT” and the the best player in the world for years in the 2010's Leo Messi were at their best against the Saudis a opening match - or even against Mexico. In the first half Mexico were very organized and Argentina looked clueless offensively. In the second half they created much more and the win was, after all, a fully deserved one. They have to and I believe they will improve here. Poland would qualify with a draw and will probably be extremely passive here. This is probable not the way to get a desired result here..The Saudi's put massive pressure on Argentina's defense which was a surprise -even a shock and was, a long with pure luck – a reason behind the massive surprise win. It was, however, a very risky strategy and it is almost a miracle Argentina scored just once as a result of the Saudi's tactic Argentina got many very dangerous attacks. The expected goals (xG) numbers were 2.78 for Argentina and just 0.19 for the Saudis The main rationale behind the bet is that Poland are much weaker than the four points – or their decent FIFA ranking reflect. Argentina will probably not win this tournament – but most probably (77%) will today! Poland's defenders are quite slow and shaky and will surely make 2-3 big mistakes..