Ranking every World Cup Team Performance after the First Round of Group Games

#30 - Poland

Wojciech Szczęsny left an unguarded net for Niang to tap into

The Poles entered the tournament thanks to 16 goals scored by their captain Robert Lewandowski. Kamil Glik was already a fitness doubt before kickoff and was not picked for the starting team in their Group H opener against Senegal. Glik and Pazdan were a very impressive central defence partnership in the European partnerships. The chemistry between those two was a huge miss as Poland lost their world cup opener against Senegal

Glik's replacement Thiago Cionek started nervously against a very quick Senegal attack. He was unfortunate to deflect a shot from Senegal's Gueye into his own net. An injury to Jakub Błaszczykowski forced the Polish to shift their formation from a 4-4-2 to a 3-4-3. The wing-backs got more license to go forward to provide service to Lewandowski and Milik.

A string of dreadful judgement errors saw Senegal take a 2-0 lead. Krychowiak played a meaningless and wayward back pass. Bednarek was slow to turn and was perhaps unaware of Niang who had just entered the pitch after receiving treatment. Wojciech Szczęsny made a disastrous judgement to come springing forward against a freshly treated and fast Niang. Niang took his first touch away and scored into an open net. The Polish got a consolation goal from a Krychowiak header but they did nothing in the game to gain a point.

The Polish midfielders let their front two down in this game. Zielinski and Krychowiak were wasteful in their passing. There was no service for Lewandowski and Milik to do anything about. Poland's first shot on target from open play came in the 75th minute and they were simply not good enough. They now have to majorly improve in their 'do or die' clash against Colombia who also lost their first game.

#29 Panama

There were no shocks from Panama against the Red Devils

It was a historic moment for Panama as they played in their first ever World Cup game. But there was no doubt that they were inferior to Belgium as they suffered a 3-0 loss.

They did well in the first half by preventing Belgium from carving out any clear-cut chances. Their attackers were always looking to run wide which was part of the problem for Panama. It took a special strike from Mertens to break their resistance. Their defence struggled to play the offside trap and paid for that with both of Lukaku's goals.

All in all, Panama will take away a very good experience of playing against world class players and holding their own for one half at least.