Australia upsets Denmark to earn 1st qualification to knockout round since 2006

Australia advanced to the round of 16 at the World Cup, beating favoured Denmark 1-0 Wednesday on Mathew Leckie's 60th-minute goal.

It is Australia's first time in the knockout stage since 2006, the only other time they advanced out of the group stage.

Leckie took a pass near the centre circle and moved around a Danish defender before hitting a left-footed shot past goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel diving to his left.

Denmark dominated possession through much of the game but could not generate enough chances.

Denmark's Mathias Jensen had one of his team's best chances of the game in the 10th minute, but Australia goalkeeper Matthew Ryan came up with a point-blank save.

Referee Mustapha Ghorbal handed a yellow card early to defender Aziz Behich as Australia defended tenaciously from the start and counter attacked when possible.

Australia finished with six points in Group D, with defending champion France winning the group.

France blanked by Tunisia, still tops Group D

Defending champion France won its World Cup group despite losing to Tunisia 1-0 Wednesday.

Khazri ran at the heart of the French defence and beat two players before poking the ball into the bottom corner. He fell to his knees and was mobbed by teammates. When he got back up, he made a heart shape to the Tunisian fans behind the goal and then limped off, appearing to hurt himself as he fell when scoring his 25th international goal and his third at World Cups.

Another protester storms field

A few minutes after Khazri's goal, a man ran onto the field at Education City Stadium with what appeared to be a Palestinian flag. He did some acrobatic jumps before six security officials dragged him off.

With France already qualified for the knockout stage, coach Didier Deschamps rested Griezmann, Kylian Mbappe and most of his regular starters. 

With goalkeeper Hugo Lloris among the rested, 37-year-old Steve Mandanda played only the second World Cup match of his long career. The other was also in the team's third group game four years ago.

Mandanda's appearance means Lloris will have to wait a little longer to equal defender Lilian Thuram's national record of 142 appearances. Lloris has made 141 appearances for Les Bleus.

Poland loses to group winner Argentina, still advances

Rest easy, soccer fans. Lionel Messi will grace the World Cup stage at least one more time.

The Argentina great had a penalty saved but his team still beat Poland 2-0 Wednesday after second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez and advanced to the last 16.

Argentina finished in first place in Group C to set up a match against Australia, a surprise qualifier for the knockout stage.

It's a strong position for Argentina to be in, especially considering the team opened the World Cup with a shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in one of biggest upsets in the tournament's history. Messi's likely final World Cup rolls onto Saturday.

He will be relieved after failing to score a penalty for the second straight World Cup. It was awarded after being hit in the face by the flailing hand of Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who made amends by diving to his left to block Messi's kick.

The final whistle blew with Poland players still unsure if they were advancing, given the Mexico-Saudi Arabia game was ongoing. A stoppage-time goal by the Saudis made it even harder for Mexico, sparking loud cheers by Poland's team and the squirting of water from their bottles in the middle of the field.

Mexico fall victim to goal differential

Henry Martin and Luis Chaves each scored in Mexico's furious attempt to stay alive at the World Cup, but the 2-1 victory Wednesday night over Saudi Arabia was not enough.

Because of Argentina's 2-0 victory over Poland in a simultaneous match, Mexico failed to advance out of its group for the first time since 1978.

El Tri didn't qualify for the 1982 World Cup in Spain, and was banned from the 1990 event in Italy for using overage players at an under-20 tournament.

The Mexicans went into the match at Lusail Stadium needing both a victory and help from Poland playing across town against Argentina to advance in Group C. Argentina's victory meant goal difference came into play.

Martin scored in the 48th minute to give El Tri hope, and the team's chances got even better with Luis Chavez's goal on a free kick four minutes later.

Mexico tried desperately in the final 20 minutes to get another goal — including an effort by Uriel Antuna in the 87th minute that was ruled offside — but came up short.

Mexico opened the tournament in Qatar with a 0-0 draw against Poland and but fell 2-0 to Lionel Messi and Argentina.