Two Napoli players were in action on Wednesday: Hirving Lozano and Piotr Zielinski.
Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve
Hirving Lozano played the full 90 minutes in Mexico’s 2-1 victory over Saudi Arabia. After playing as one of the two strikers against Argentina, Lozano returned to the right wing, where he played in Mexico’s opening match against Poland. However, with Uriel Antuna replacing Alexis Vega after the break, Lozano was moved to the left wing.
Ironically, Lozano was most effective when he roamed into the middle of the park. In the opening 15 minutes, he played two dangerous through-balls after drifting into the middle. By the 80th minute, no player had received more passes between the midfield and defensive lines than Lozano (24).
Despite having scored 16 goals for his country, the Napoli right winger played the role of playmaker against Saudi Arabia, delivering enticing crosses into the area and winning free kicks in dangerous areas.
Mexico played with relentless pace and intensity, particularly after opening the scoring early in the second half, perhaps knowing they needed to win by a wide margin to have any chance of advancing to the Knockout Stage.
With Mexico up by two, Lozano thought he scored the all-important third goal, but the goal was canceled by the VAR, with help from the semi-automated offside technology (SAOT). El Chucky played a quick give-and-go with Henry Martin before slotting a shot into the bottom corner, but the SAOT showed that Martin was fractionally offside on the first pass.
As the match wore on, Lozano became a goal-scoring threat as well, finishing the match with four shot attempts (two on target), including an attempt midway through the second half that nearly snuck into the bottom corner. In fact, Mexico peppered Saudi Arabian with 25 shot attempts, ten of which were on target.
With their performance against Saudi Arabia, Mexico certainly deserved to advance to the knockout stage. However, after conceding in stoppage time, Mexico failed to advance due to an inferior goal differential. In truth, even had they not conceded, Poland would have advanced based on FIFA’s fair play rule, as Mexico and Poland were equal on points, goal differential, goals scored, head-to-head points, head-to-head goal differential and head-to-head goals scored.
Just Enough
Piotr ZIelinski played the full 90 minutes in Poland’s 2-0 defeat to Argentina. He lined up on the right wing in Czesław Michniewicz’ 4-2-3-1 formation – his third different starting position in three matches.
However, with Argentina controlling the run of play, Zielinski spent most of the match defending on the right side of the 4-4-2. Argentina had 67% of the ball to Poland’s 24%.
Zielinski’s lone contribution in the attacking half was a well-struck free kick in the second half, which Kamil Glik very nearly headed into the top corner.
Though Poland generated next to nothing in attack, generating no shots on target, they did just enough in defense to advance to the Knockout Stage. That was highlighted by Wojciech Szczęsny’s save on Lionel Messi’s penalty kick late in the first half – Szczęsny’s second penalty save of the Group Stage.
