Raul Jimenez's Goal Lifts Mexico Past Poland 1-0 in Friendly

Raul Jimenez's fierce first-half finish proved enough for Mexico to down Poland 1-0 at the Stadion Energa Gdansk in Monday's friendly clash.

The Benfica forward was quite fortunate to receive the ball in the box in the 13th minute, but he made no mistake as he lashed the ball into the roof of the net first time from 10 yards.

Poland had their chances to level the score, particularly a Maciej Rybus effort just before the hour, but El Tri were eventually fairly comfortable in earning a decent win away from home.

Jonathan dos Santos set up Jimenez for a close-range header just four minutes in, but Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny was equal to the task.

However, he could do nothing to keep out the 26-year-old's thunderous left-footed effort in the 13th minute.

Javier Aquino had burst toward the box, and despite losing control, the ball then pin-balled back into Jimenez's path and he smashed it first time into the roof of the net.

The hosts struggled to retain any real possession in the remaining half-hour of the opening half as they looked for an equaliser and were limited largely to shots from distance.

Their best opportunity came in the 20th minute when a fine Karol Linetty delivery from a free-kick caused havoc in the Mexican box, but when the ball fell to Tomasz Kedziora, he could only launch his effort over the bar.

Krzysztof Maczynski and Jakub Swierczok both engineered tame efforts late in the half, but Mexican football writer Tom Marshall was correct in his conclusion El Tri had been largely comfortable:

Linetty then went close five minutes into the second half, but his effort went wide and again came from outside the box.

Rybus then finally gave Mexico a real scare as he burst into the left of the box, but his effort was saved well by Joe Corona's outstretched right leg.

Mexico looked largely comfortable from then on and went close to a second through Carlos Vela, Oribe Peralta and Hirving Lozano in the closing stages.