Poor Mexico, who won't get their customary World Cup last-16 exit. Poland, on the other hand, did what they had to do by doing nothing at all.
Date published: Wednesday 30th November 2022 10:01 -
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Let’s go back a bit and remind ourselves how we got here. There must be words of praise here for Saudi Arabia, who ended up bottom of Group C but did so, so much to make it the most compelling group of the lot even if the final analysis – Argentina top with not much between Poland and Mexico for second – was eminently predictable.
Apparently fully aware of the bizarre yet very real situation unfolding, Poland’s approach to the last 30 or so minutes of their game was grimly fascinating. They had two options. Having long since entirely eschewed the maverick and absurd Option A they were fully reliant on Option B, which required threading the needle of preventing a Lionel Messi-conducted Argentina from scoring but also not picking up yellow cards in the process.
For Mexico, this marks the end of an era. After seven straight last-16 exits they’ve gone out even earlier by the barest of margins. While the yellow-card rule wasn’t ultimately required, that’s a mere technicality. It was the yellows that knocked them out; had they been ahead on disciplinary countback they would not have been pouring forward to create the space that gave Saudi Arabia their consolation.
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