Qatar 2022: Holders France qualify, Lewy fires Saudi back to earth, & Messi’s Argentina is back

Africa’s search for a second victory at the FIFA World Cup proved unsuccessful after North Africans, Tunisia, suffered defeat in Group D.

The Carthage Eagles were hoping to become the second country from Africa to register a win after Senegal yesterday.

But after over 90 minutes of action, the Eagles came short following a defeat as they failed to build on that positive draw against Denmark in their opener.

Mitchell Duke was the hero for Denmark as his first-half header proved to be the only difference between the two teams in the clash of outsiders in Group D.

It hasn’t been the best of days for the Middle East in round two of matches at Qatar 2022.

After the host, Qatar was sent packing on Friday, Saudi Arabia was the next team from the region to bite the dust.

The Green Falcons have been on cloud nine since that historic win over the pre-tournament favourite, Argentina, in their opener.

However, it seems Renard Herve’s men celebrated a bit too much after Poland brought them back to earth in the second game.

Robert Lewandowski was the star of the show as he scored one and assisted the other goal for the country.

The Barcelona forward assisted the opener scored by Piotr Zielinski in the first half before he capitalised on a defensive error to seal the win in the second half.

Lewandowski broke down in tears to celebrate what was his first-ever goal at the FIFA World Cup.

World Champions France have become the first team in Qatar 2022 to book a ticket to the round of 16.

It was the Kylian Mbappe show as Les Bleus defeated Denmark 2-1 to make it two wins in two to seal a place in the knockout stage.

Mbappe continued to deliver on the biggest stage for his country and came up with two second-half goals to help France survive a scare from the Danes.

Andreas Christensen thought he had secured a point for Denmark when he headed in an equaliser to cancel Mbappe’s opener for France.

However, with four minutes left to play, the PSG latched on to a perfect cross from Antoine Griezmann to score the decisive winner.

With the win, France become the first Champions from Europe to make it out of the group stage at the FIFA World Cup since 1994.

Pre-tournament favourite Argentina is back in business at the FIFA World Cup after a hard-fought win over Mexico.

Lionel Messi was the star and hero as Argentina defeated Mexico 2-0 in the final game of the day to revive their Qatar 2022 campaign.

Messi scored one and assisted another to inspire La Albiceleste to a much-needed first win in Qatar.

After the opening day shocker they suffered against Saudi Arabia, Messi and Argentina looked like they’d drop further points until just after the hour mark when Messi fired in the opener from over 25 yards.

Enzo Fernandez came off the bench to score the goal of the game, with Messi involved again as the Benfica midfielder struck a stunning effort to seal the win.

Argentina returns to winning ways and will go into the final game against Poland looking to seal passage into the next round with their fate now firmly back in their hands.