Qatar 2022 | Group C: Argentina could be hitting a high note at the right time

Group C at the 2022 Fifa World Cup contains the 2021 Ballon D’Or winner and runner-up, but in teams it has less overall quality than it does in individuals.

At 30, Fifa's 2021 player of the year Lionel Messi will aim to steer group heavyweights Argentina to success in potentially his last World Cup, and perhaps even the trophy. Runner-up Robert Lewandowski’s Poland are set to battle for second place with Mexico, with Hervé Renard’s Saudi Arabia a spanner in the works.

Argentina

After their disappointment at the 2018 World Cup, losing to eventual champions France in the last 16, Messi will aim to steer 2014 runners-up Argentina to at least the semifinals in Qatar.

Lionel Scaloni only had seven caps for Argentina in the 2000s, but as coach the 44-year-old has turned around the national team since replacing Jorge Sampaoli after Russia 2018. He steered Argentina to third place at the 2019 Copa América. Messi had an underwhelming first season at Paris St-Germain in 2021-22 after his move there from Barcelona, but was on form steering Argentina to winning the 2021 Copa, beating hosts Brazil in the final and the talismanic forward ending joint top scorer with four goals.

Scaloni has only four defeats in 47 games as he has turned Argentina into a a solid combination who, with 39 points, reached Qatar undefeated in second place to Brazil (46 points) in the 10-team South American qualifying group with 11 wins and six draws in 17 games.

Atletico Madrid’s Rodrigo De Paul, Villareal’s Giovani Lo Celso and Leandro Paredes of Juventus form a rock of a midfield three Scaloni’s team are built on, and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez is the man to provide goals playing inside of Messi.

Argentina are undefeated in 35 matches since their defeat to Brazil in the 2019 Copa final, and have won their last four games, scoring 14 unanswered goals including a 3-0 win over Italy. They could really do something in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia

Renard is well-known to African football audiences. He performed a minor miracle steering unheralded Zambia to winning the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. In 2015 he became the first coach to win the Nations Cup with two countries, steering Ivory Coast’s underachieving golden generation to the title.

He will need all his renowned inspirational and technical abilities to steer Saudi Arabia past a tough group for Al-Saqour (the Falcons).

Saudi Arabia are a Middle East powerhouse and qualified for Qatar comfortably, with only one defeat in 18 games in Asia’s last two group stages, topping their final round group with 23 points over Japan (22) and Australia (15).

They have an experienced squad in which winger Salim Al-Dawsari has a reputation for dazzling skills, pace and goals, and is playing in his second World Cup, having been part of Saudi Arabia’s combination that exited in the group stage at Russia 2018.

In five World Cups Saudi Arabia have gone past the group stage once, to the last 16 at USA 1994. They will hope knowledge of Gulf conditions and Renard’s magic touch can see them through Group C.

Mexico

Mexico are almost always always solid World Cup qualifiers from the lesser-strength Concacaf (Central and North America and the Caribbean) region, but battle to advance far there. They have played in 16 World Cups, exited in the group stage seven times, reached the last 16 in every one of the last seven, and the quarterfinals twice - on home soil in 1970 and 1986.

They finished level with Canada on 28 points in Concacaf’s final round of qualifying, in second place on goal difference, three points ahead of third-placed US. Argentine Coach Gerardo Martino knows his native country’s football team well, having coached Mexico’s Group C opponents from 2014 to 2016, and knows Messi especially well having coached the player at Barcelona in the 2013-14 season. Martino steered Mexico to the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup title and runners-up in 2021.

With stars such as winger Hirving “Chucky” Lozano, who in 2019 signed for Napoli for €42m (about R750m) to become the most expensive Mexican player of all time, Mexico are solid again. But they will have a tough battle ousting Poland to reaching an eighth last 16 place in succession in Qatar.

Poland

Barcelona star Lewandowski, 34, is surely the best No 9 in the world and Poland’s hopes of getting past Group C rest on his shoulders. The striker’s 76 goals in 134 games for Poland are matched as a remarkable statistic by his 238 in 253 appearances for Bayern Munich before joining Barca, as Lewandowski has lurked behind Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the world’s top players.

Much will depend on the service Poland’s main wingers - 23-year-old Sebastian Szymański of Feyenoord and the more experienced Piotr Zieliński of Napoli – can provide Lewandowski.

Biało-czerwoni (The White and Red) had a disappointing Euro 2020, ending bottom of Group E under coach Jerzy Brzęczek. Paulo Sousa steered them to second place to England in Uefa’s World Cup qualifying Group I, but the Portuguese shocked Polish football when he left to join Brazil’s Flamengo in December.

Under Czesław Michniewicz, 52, Poland got a bye in the playoffs after Russia were expelled then beat Sweden 2-0 to reach Qatar. Well organised, but something of a one-man team, Lewandowski can guide them past Group C but it will take something special to go further.