Robert Lewandowski scored his first World Cup goal to help Poland produce one of the most comfortable World Cup results of the weekend action. The Barcelona striker scored Poland’s second goal just four days after missing a crucial penalty in his team’s opening goalless draw against Mexico. Lewandowski, 34, fell to the ground and sobbed as he returned to the center circle after finally scoring in his sixth World Cup game. Prior to Lewandowski’s goal, Wojciech Szczesny had stopped a penalty attempt in the last seconds of the first half after Piotr Zielinski had given Poland the lead in the 39th minute.
Szczesny saved Mohamed Kanno’s close-range shot in the 13th minute, defying expectations that Saudi Arabia would enter the game with a lot of confidence after pulling off one of the greatest World Cup surprises in history by upsetting Argentina. However, Poland took the lead when Zielinski scored after Lewandowski intercepted a weak ball from Matty Cash and elevated it over the goalie (39). But four minutes later, a VAR review revealed that Krystian Bielik had fouled Saleh Al-Shehri, and Saudi Arabia was given a penalty. Saudi Arabia’s captain Al-Dawsari scored the game-winning goal against Argentina, but Szczesny astonishingly blocked both Al-low Dawsari’s penalty and Al-follow-up Dawsari’s attempt.
In the second half, Poland nearly increased their lead when Lewandowski hit the post and Arkadiusz Milik hit the crossbar with a header. The striker from the old Bayern Munich, though, ultimately scored his first World Cup goal as he capitalized on Al-oversight Malki’s to calmly slip the ball past Mohamed Al-Owais. Poland’s victory puts them a point ahead of Argentina in Group C, and Argentina later on Saturday avoided an early World Cup departure with a 2-0 victory over Mexico. They are now level on points with Saudi Arabia for second place on goal differential.
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