November 30, 2022 World Cup news and highlights

Former Argentina international footballer Mauricio Pochettino says he’s feeling confident about his nation’s crunch tie against Poland at Qatar 2022. 

Pochettino, who has also managed the likes of Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain, believes his side has quality to get past its tricky opponents and qualify for the knockout phases.

After its tricky start to the tournament, where lost to to Saudi Arabia, Argentina has zero margin for error needing a win against Poland to ensure qualification. 

“Our culture is to be positive, always,” Pochettino told CNN Sport on Wednesday, adding that it's hard to think logically about his country playing in the World Cup. 

“It’s impossible to be rational, we talk with our hearts.”

Messi lit up the competition with a wonderful strike in Argentina’s victory against Mexico on Saturday. 

The 35-year-old has one last chance to add the World Cup trophy to his cabinet and Pochettino says the whole of Argentina is behind him. 

“I think everyone would pay attention to Messi because he’s the player who can do something different,” Pochettino added. 

Watch the interview:

Australia has advanced to the knockout round after defeating Denmark 1-0 in Group D play at the 2022 FIFA World Cup on Wednesday.

Mathew Leckie scored the lone goal in the 60th minute at Al Janoub Stadium in Al Wakrah. The Socceroos finished second in Group D and advanced to the Round of 16 for the second time in men's national team history, the first since 2016.

In the other D group match, reigning champion France lost to Tunisia 1-0​ at Education City Stadium in Al Rayyan. Despite the defeat, Les Bleus still won the group. 

French star Antoine Griezmann appeared to have tied the match in stoppage time but after video review, Griezmann's goal was disallowed as he was offside.

Later today: The two teams to advance to the next round from Group C — featuring Poland, Argentina, Saudi Arabia and Mexico — will be determined later Wednesday.

France will face the second-place finisher of Group C on Sunday while Australia takes on the Group C winner on Saturday.

Australia stunned Denmark – a team ranked 28 places above the Socceroos in FIFA’s World Rankings – to reach the World Cup knockout stages thanks to a brilliant goal from Mathew Leckie.

It had been a tense, scoreless first half, marked by Denmark dominating possession and failing to convert any of its chances in this Group D match.

The tension seemed to percolate through every pass, every shot on goal, every pause in play, and ratcheted up a notch at the beginning of the second half when the news that Tunisia had taken a lead against France in the other Group D match filtered through.

A goalless draw between Australia and Denmark and a Tunisia win would have put the The Eagles of Carthage through to the knockout stages.

Just four minutes later, with their World Cup hopes hanging by a thread, the Socceroos counter-attacked from their box and Riley McGree found Leckie on a well timed run.

Leckie then jinked past two Danish defenders and rolled the ball past Kasper Schmeichel into the net, prompting wild celebrations with his team.

Read more about the match here.

Thursday’s Group E FIFA World Cup match between Costa Rica and Germany will see an all-women refereeing team for the first time in men’s World Cup history.

Frenchwoman Stephanie Frappart will lead the refereeing team, making her the first woman to referee a men’s World Cup match.

Frappart, 38, became the first woman to referee a men’s UEFA Champions League game in December 2020. She refereed the women’s World Cup final in 2019 between the USA and the Netherlands, and the men’s UEFA Super Cup final the same year.

On the pressure of making history, Frappart said: “So this pressure, I know the feeling. I know how I can manage it – I think it was the same as the final of the [2019] World Cup. I always say the pressure is [from the] outside, not on my side.”

Rwandan official Salima Mukansanga and Yamashita Yoshimi from Japan are also part of the officiating pool for the 2022 men’s World Cup.

Germany takes on Costa Rica at the Al Bayt Stadium at 2 p.m. ET on Thursday.

The US Men’s National Team (USMNT) was made to work hard for its place in the World Cup knockout stage, earning a tough 1-0 win over Iran in a nerve-racking Group B decider Tuesday.

Christian Pulisic’s first-half goal was all that separated the two sides as the USMNT reached the round of 16 for the first time since 2014.

The pressure was certainly on for Gregg Berhalter’s side in Qatar after the national team’s failure to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, but the US got the job done with three gritty group performances.

It certainly wasn’t pretty at times, in particular in the closing stages against Iran, but progressing through the group stage was the minimum expectation for this exciting young team.

There will be some concerns going into the knockout stages, though, after Pulisic suffered an abdominal injury while scoring the winner.

The USMNT will be hoping its star man, dubbed "Captain America" by some, is fit for the round of 16 match against the Netherlands on Saturday following the news that Pulisic had been sent to hospital for a scan.

Berhalter on Wednesday said he feels good after the team advanced to the World Cup Round of 16, but he wants "to keep this thing rolling."

"He seems to be doing good," Berhalter said. 

"We'll see what he can do on the training field tomorrow and hopefully he'll be ready for the game against Netherlands," he said.

"But in terms of his contribution to the group, I've said it all along when one of your most talented players is also one of the hardest workers, you know you are in a good spot," he added.

To read more, click here.