This is the third Fifa World Cup meeting between Poland and Argentina – Poland won 3-2 in 1974, while Argentina won 2-0 en route to winning the trophy for the first time in 1978.
This is the first meeting of any kind between Poland and Argentina since a friendly in June 2011, the European side running out 2-1 winners.
Having won four of their first seven Fifa World Cup games against South American sides (L3), Poland have lost each of their last three in the competition without scoring a single goal.
Argentina have lost their last two Fifa World Cup games against European nations, with these losses coming against Croatia (0-3) and France (3-4) in 2018. They’ve never lost three consecutive World Cup games against European sides before.
Poland have kept a clean sheet in each of their last three World Cup games, including both in 2022 despite facing 27 shots (9 on target) at this edition. Never previously have Poland recorded four consecutive World Cup shutouts.
Following their victory last time out against Mexico, Argentina will be looking to progress to the knockout stages for a 13th time in their last 14 World Cup appearances, with their only group stage elimination during this period coming in 2002.
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Poland are looking to qualify from their World Cup group for the first time since the 1986 tournament under Antoni Piechniczek. Meanwhile, Poland last remained unbeaten in all three matches in their first round group in 1982, when their third and final game of that group round was a 5-1 win over South American opponents Peru.
Lionel Messi has scored in six successive appearances for Argentina in all competitions, his joint-longest scoring run for his national side (also 6 between November 2011 - September 2012), while he now has as many World Cup goals as Diego Maradona (8), with only Gabriel Batistuta (10) netting more for Argentina at the tournament overall
Robert Lewandowski has been directly involved in both of Poland’s goals at the 2022 World Cup (1 goal, 1 assist), and became their oldest ever World Cup goalscorer against Saudi Arabia last time out (34y 97d). He is the only Polish player to have attempted more than two shots at this year’s World Cup (7), while no teammate has created more chances than the Barcelona striker at this edition of the tournament (3, level with Piotr Zielinski).
Argentina had to wait until the 40th minute for their first attempt on goal in their MD2 encounter with Mexico, with the entire game producing just nine shots in total (Argentina 5, Mexico 4), the lowest tally on record in a World Cup match since 1966.