Argentina could be hitting a high note at the right time

Group C at the 2022 Fifa World Cup contains the 2021 Ballon D’Or winner and runner-up, but in teams it has less overall quality than it does in individuals.

At 30, Fifa's 2021 player of the year Lionel Messi will aim to steer group heavyweights Argentina to success in potentially his last World Cup, and perhaps even the trophy. Runner-up Robert Lewandowski’s Poland are set to battle for second place with Mexico, with Hervé Renard’s Saudi Arabia a spanner in the works.

Argentina

After their disappointment at the 2018 World Cup, losing to eventual champions France in the last 16, Messi will aim to steer 2014 runners-up Argentina to at least the semifinals in Qatar.

Lionel Scaloni only had seven caps for Argentina in the 2000s, but as coach the 44-year-old has turned around the national team since replacing Jorge Sampaoli after Russia 2018. He steered Argentina to third place at the 2019 Copa América. Messi had an underwhelming first season at Paris St-Germain in 2021-22 after his move there from Barcelona, but was on form steering Argentina to winning the 2021 Copa, beating hosts Brazil in the final and the talismanic forward ending joint top scorer with four goals.

Atletico Madrid’s Rodrigo De Paul, Villareal’s Giovani Lo Celso and Leandro Paredes of Juventus form a rock of a midfield three Scaloni’s team are built on, and Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez is the man to provide goals playing inside of Messi.

Argentina are undefeated in 35 matches since their defeat to Brazil in the 2019 Copa final, and have won their last four games, scoring 14 unanswered goals including a 3-0 win over Italy. They could really do something in Qatar.

Saudi Arabia

Herve Renard is well-known to African football audiences. He performed a minor miracle steering unheralded Zambia to winning the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. In 2015 he became the first coach to win the Nations Cup with two countries, steering Ivory Coast’s underachieving golden generation to the title.

He will need all his renowned inspirational and technical abilities to steer Saudi Arabia past a tough group for Al-Saqour (the Falcons).

Mexico

Mexico are almost always always solid World Cup qualifiers from the lesser-strength Concacaf (Central and North America and the Caribbean) region, but battle to advance far there. They have played in 16 World Cups, exited in the group stage seven times, reached the last 16 in every one of the last seven, and the quarterfinals twice - on home soil in 1970 and 1986.

They finished level with Canada on 28 points in Concacaf’s final round of qualifying, in second place on goal difference, three points ahead of third-placed US. Argentine Coach Gerardo Martino knows his native country’s football team well, having coached Mexico’s Group C opponents from 2014 to 2016, and knows Messi especially well having coached the player at Barcelona in the 2013-14 season. Martino steered Mexico to the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup title and runners-up in 2021.

Poland

Barcelona star Lewandowski, 34, is surely the best No 9 in the world and Poland’s hopes of getting past Group C rest on his shoulders. The striker’s 76 goals in 134 games for Poland are matched as a remarkable statistic by his 238 in 253 appearances for Bayern Munich before joining Barca, as Lewandowski has lurked behind Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the world’s top players.

Much will depend on the service Poland’s main wingers - 23-year-old Sebastian Szymański of Feyenoord and the more experienced Piotr Zieliński of Napoli – can provide Lewandowski.