DOHA: Mexico and Poland kick-start their World Cup campaign on Tuesday knowing the outcome of the clash could decide who survives beyond the group stage of the 2022 tournament.

Group favourites Argentina take on unlikely contenders Saudi Arabia in the earlier duel, and barring a major upset in that match the second spot in the final group rankings is likely to go to either Mexico or Poland.

Mexico’s strong record of being unbeaten in their World Cup openers is a statistic any team could fear. They won five and drew one in the most recent six tournaments, always making it to the knockout stage.

This, however, is where the pros seem to end for Mexico this time round.

Coach Gerardo Martino’s side is short in the striker department as, to the bafflement of Mexico’s fans, the Argentine decided to leave out their all-time top scorer Javier Hernandez despite his good form this season.

Further dampening the mood, Mexico lost their last pre-World Cup friendly against Sweden, conceding a late goal and heading to Qatar one day later.

Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa, appearing in his fifth World Cup, said he wanted to instill a sense of calm in the team’s young players to prevent them from feeling overwhelmed in their opening game.

“There are a lot of young players who don’t have any World Cup experience,” the 37-year-old Ochoa told a news conference on Monday.

“Part of my job is to bring normalcy and calm day-to-day in training because it’s easy for emotions to take over at a World Cup, be it for a good play or an error.”

If Poland survive the group stage, it will be the first time since 1986, and they failed to qualify for the finals more times than they qualified during the intervening years.

But Poland possess something Mexico do not — a world class striker. Robert Lewandowski has said it may or may not be his last World Cup, but has approached it as if it is, and will want to make sure this is one to remember.

Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny believes Lewandowski will break his World Cup duck in Qatar. Lewandowski is Poland’s record scorer with 76 goals in 134 games but the Barcelona star failed to find the net four years ago in Russia as the Poles exited in the group stage.

The 34-year-old has struck 25 times across the last two World Cup qualifying campaigns but has yet to open his account at the finals.

“I think it’s definitely important for him (to score),” Szczesny told reporters.

“He’s very motivated before the World Cup. No one doubts that Robert is one of the best players in the world right now.”

After eight record-breaking seasons at Bayern Munich, Lewandowski has been just as prolific in his first season with Barcelona — hitting 18 goals in 19 appearances.

“He would definitely like to see his ambitions come true, not only at club level but for his national team,” Szczesny said.

This is a very important tournament. I do believe we’ll add Robert Lewandowski to the great names of Polish football with what he does in Qatar.”

Published in Dawn, November 22nd, 2022