Today at the World Cup: Crunch time for Argentina and France face a familiar foe

Argentina must put their shock defeat by Saudi Arabia behind them when they face Poland today looking to get their World Cup back on track.

Lionel Scaloni’s side, one of the pre-tournament favourites, sit bottom of Group C after the first round of games, but can start to fix that when they take on Mexico.

Saudi Arabia will try to prove it was no fluke against Poland, while in Group D France face Denmark and Australia are up against Tunisia.

Here, Football Mad keeps on top of events in Qatar.

Argentina look to Maradona

Scaloni summoned the spirit of Diego Maradona as he tried to change the mood after Tuesday’s shock defeat.

With the pressure on for today’s Mexico match, and as the nation marked the two-year anniversary of The Golden Boy’s death, Scaloni paid tribute to the man who captained his country to World Cup glory in 1986.

“We hope to bring some joy for Maradona, who will be looking down at us from the sky,” he said. “That will be the most important thing for us.

“Every time we see images of him it is unbelievable that he is not here with us. Hopefully, it will be a happy day for all of us.”

Can Denmark frustrate France again?

Reigning champions France will continue their World Cup defence against Denmark, with Didier Deschamps hoping they have learned from recent Nations League defeats by them.

France opened their Group D campaign with a 4-1 thrashing of Australia and start as favourites against a Danish outfit who were held to a goalless draw by Tunisia.

But Denmark won home and away against France in the Nations League and Deschamps said Kasper Hjulmand’s side have been underestimated.

“We are talking about a four-month period where they beat us twice and made life very difficult for us. We will have to make sure that’s not the case.

“It is not a question of revenge because we know the Danish players and they know us. They can change system from one match to the other and that can give us different types of difficulties.”

Disappointing England

The optimism that came with an opening 6-2 win over Iran was quickly tempered by a flat England performance in Friday’s goalless draw against the United States, who often looked the more dangerous team, certainly in the first half when Christian Pulisic rattled a shot off the crossbar.

The final whistle was greeted with boos, with many fans frustrated not only by the performance but also by Southgate’s decision to keep Phil Foden on the bench while Mason Mount struggled to make an impact.

Victory would have seen England wrap up qualification early and allow Southgate more selection options against the Welsh on Tuesday night, but they nevertheless remain top of the group.

Harry Kane missed a late chance to win it as he headed wide from a free-kick, but in truth England did not deserve three points.

“(It was) the complete contrast to the game against Iran when we took our chances really well,” captain Kane said on ITV. “We had two or three opportunities and didn’t quite put it away. We played a tough team and we move on.”

Wales down and almost out

Gareth Bale was “gutted”. Robert Page called it “a hard one to take”.

Wales’ hopes of escaping from Group B are hanging by a thread after a shock defeat by Iran, who scored both of their goals during 10 minutes of time added on after goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was sent off in the 86th minute.

Iran had hit both posts and had a goal disallowed before Roozbeh Cheshmi’s strike in the eighth minute of injury-time broke the deadlock, with Ramin Rezaeian rubbing it in moments later.

“We want to finish the competition on a high,” boss Page said. “It’s out of our hands for going through, but we want to finish with a good performance and a win. We’re low at the moment, but we’ll get them back up tomorrow for a tough game to finish with.”

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Who’s up next

Tunisia v Australia, 10am, BBC1
Poland v Saudi Arabia, 1pm, ITV1
France v Denmark, 4pm, ITV1
Argentina v Mexico, 7pm, ITV1