The trio of Lionel Messi, Angel di Maria and Marcos Acuna put lot of pressure with their aggressive gameplay, but a valiant Poland guarded their goal brilliantly, including a Messi penalty save made by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny in a goalless first half of Group C match between Argentina and Poland in Doha on Wednesday.
Starting off the match in an all-blue jersey, Argentina earned their first corner of the match. But it was guarded well by the Polish defence.
Robert Lewandowski gets in a decent cross from the right and Krystian Bielik's shot from the edge of the box got blocked. Even Messi made a couple of attempts at the goal in the opening 10 minutes but goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny made saves both times.
Argentina was extremely aggressive in their pursuit of opening goal and kept making chances for themselves in the first 20 minutes. They also enjoyed a great deal of ball possession. Poland were trying their level best to attack but every attempt of theirs was thwarted by Argentinians.
Marcos Acuna and Messi were the stars for Argentina in the first 30 minutes of the match with their aggressive gameplay. In the 32nd minute, Angel Di Maria tried to hit Poland with a curling corner but the goalkeeper managed to avert the danger with one hand.
In the 35th minute, Messi responded to Julian Alvarez's cross well but his header missed the goal. Argentina was awarded a penalty after a VAR review caught minimal contact between him and another player.
Messi could not convert the penalty into a goal and the goalkeeper made his second save of the tournament, a brilliant one-handed save this time around.
Three minutes were added to the first half. The first half was goalless but featured heavily aggressive gameplay from Argentina, some brilliant defending from Poland.
( With inputs from ANI )
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