A little more than a month separates football fans from the main holiday of the four years – the World Cup. Even now, football fans are increasingly looking at the line-ups of groups and trying to guess how the tournament fate of a team might turn out. In this material, we want to study in detail Group C, which was formed by Argentina, Poland, Mexico and Saudi Arabia.
Argentina
Main stars: Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez, Angel Di Maria, Nicolas Otamendi.
Best World Cup result: Victory (1978, 1986)
Last year, the Argentina national team of the Lionel Messi era finally managed to close the most important gestalt and won the first major international tournament – the Copa America. That success rallied the team and added to her self-confidence. Already this summer, the Argentines once again demonstrated their power by beating Italy in a match between the strongest teams in Europe and South America.
The main figure and the main hope of the national team is Messi. Lionel himself understands that with a high degree of probability, this is his last Mundial. To a certain extent, he sacrifices the club season (often misses matches and prepares the peak of form just in time for November). If Leo manages to show his whole class, and the partners reach out for the leader, Argentina will be among the main contenders for the medals.
According to Mostbet quotes, the Argentines are the clear favorites in each of their matches in the group stage.
Poland
Main stars: Robert Lewandowski, Wojciech Szczesny, Piotr Zielinski, Arkadiusz Milik.
Best World Cup result: Third place (1974, 1982)
The Polish national team qualified for the World Cup thanks to a successful game in the play-off against Sweden. The Poles look like a classic representative of the “second echelon”. This team cannot be classified as a favorite in any way, but it can surprise and give a fight to any opponent in one particular match.
The main hopes of the Poles, of course, are connected with Robert Lewandowski. The very fact of his presence in the opponent’s penalty area is already a danger. It is enough for the Barcelona forward to get the ball in a comfortable position once per game to excel. The goalkeeper option in the face of Wojciech Szczesny also looks quite reliable.
Mexico
Main stars: Guillermo Ochoa, Andres Guardado, Hector Herrera, Raul Jimenez.
Best result at the World Cup: 1/4 (1970, 1986).
Mexicans are incredibly stable in recent world championships. Since 1994, they regularly get to the Mundial and, moreover, they perform the same way there – they go through the group and fly out in the first stage of the playoffs.
The Mexicans went through the selection quite calmly, scoring the same points as Canada and taking second place (three teams pass directly from North America). A characteristic feature was the low performance of matches with the participation of this team. Mexico scored 17 goals in 14 matches and conceded only 8. The team does not have a bright leader in attack – the mentioned 17 goals were scored by 13 different players.
Saudi Arabia
Main stars: Yassir al-Shahrani, Fahad al-Muwallad.
Best result at the World Cup: 1/8 (1994).
Saudi Arabia will go to its sixth World Cup. So far, the team’s achievements are extremely modest – only 3 matches won out of 16. But the team gave a really high-quality selection – the first place in the group with Japan, Australia and China.
The team consists entirely of players from the local championship and does not have a single big name that would be familiar to the general public of football fans. Exclusively in terms of personnel potential, winning at least one game looks like the ultimate dream.
Our forecast
Group C looks like a classic World Cup quartet – we have clear favorites (Argentina), underdogs (Saudi Arabia) and two strong teams that will compete for a place in the playoffs (Mexico and Poland). Considering the Lewandowski factor, we dare to give the advantage in this dispute to the Poles. The Argentines should not only calmly pass the group, but also score maximum points.
