Mexico vs Poland Qatar Preview

Well, the countdown is over, Qatar is here and the first challenge El Tri will face it’s the Slavic nation of Poland. 

With just a few hours away from kickoff there’s an aura of pessimism among Mexican fans. Los Aztecas haven’t looked good in the friendly matches before the World Cup, with 2 wins and 3 losses in the last 5 games of preparation for the tournament, Tata Martino doesn’t even have a clear picture of who will be the starting number 9 on their opening game, Raul Jimenez who is coming out of an injury clearly looked out of rhythm in the 2-1 loss against Sweden, Funes Mori is not a fan favorite and didn’t have a good semester with Rayados, So Henry Martin seems to be the one with the best form but many “aficionados” have doubts that he can be the main striker. 

Meanwhile, Poland looked strong without Lewandowski against Chile in their 1-0 win at home to say goodbye to their fans in Warsaw before traveling to Doha. The stage for this clash will be Stadium 974 where many “paisanos” are expected to show up to support El Tri, so let’s look at the keys for this match-up. 

For Mexico the keys are: 

-Maintaining ball possession, Lewandowski can’t hurt you as much without the ball. -Take care of the fast transitions Poland will have when they recover the ball, Gallardo and Sánchez are going to have to be more disciplined on defense. 

-Hirving Lozano and Alexis Vega’s magic, they are by far the two most talented players Mexico has and the offense will go as far as they take it. 

Keys for Poland 

-As mentioned before the transitions at full speed when they recover the ball can be deadly, especially with a killer like Lewandowski to finish the “contra golpe”. 

-Set plays, with their superior physicality they can cause a lot of harm on corners and free kicks.

Now let’s take a look at how the teams might line up in a few hours. 

Possible starting XI for Mexico (4-3-3) 

Goalkeeper: Guillermo Ochoa 

Right Back: Jorge Sánchez 

Center Back: Cesar Montes 

Center Back: Héctor Moreno 

Left Back: Jesus Gallardo 

Defensive Midfielder: Edson Alvarez 

Interior: Héctor Herrera 

Interior: Luis Chávez 

Right Winger: Hirving Lozano 

Left Winger: Alexis Vega 

Striker: Henry Martin or Rogelio Funes Mori 

Possible starting XI for Poland (3-4-1-2) 

Goalkeeper: Wojciech Szczęsny 

Right Center Back: Jan Bednarek 

Center Back: Kamil Glik 

Left Center Back: Jakub Kiwior 

Right Wing Back: Bartosz Bereszyński

Central Midfielder: Grzegorz Krychowiak 

Central Midfielder: Piotr Zielinski 

Left Wing Back: Nicola Zalewski 

Offensive Midfielder: Sebastian Szymański 

Striker: Arkadiusz Milik 

Striker: Robert Lewandowski 

This is by far the most important game for Mexico in the Group Stage, everybody knows Argentina will dominate the group, so there’s only one spot left for the Round of 16 and that will be on the line this Tuesday in Doha. Let’s hope El Tri comes out inspired like many times before in their World Cup opener and the dream for “El Quinto Partido” remains alive at least for a few more days.