Lionel Messi was almost dragged into overtime – Sport – Kommersant
[ad_1]
Argentina reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup after beating the Australians 2-1 in the first round of the playoffs. Having moved 2:0 already during the second half, the Argentines almost lost control of the situation and did not allow the opponent to transfer the match to extra time. Lionel Messi’s team had a hard time getting into the quarterfinals, and then they will meet with the Netherlands national team.
In the 1/8 finals of the national team, Argentina got a team that became one of the main sensations of the group stage. Initially, almost none of the experts saw Australia in the playoffs. Everyone was sure that Denmark would leave Quartet D along with France, but the Scandinavians in Qatar unexpectedly failed, and the Australians took their place. Of course, the wards of Graham Arnold at this world championship forced themselves to be respected, showing, first of all, excellent fighting spirit, and nevertheless, even in the most daring forecasts, the option in which they also pass Argentina was not considered. The Australian national team was probably the weakest participant in the playoffs, and certainly in terms of the total transfer value of the squad. The Transfermarkt portal estimates it at only €37.3 million, and only the teams of Saudi Arabia, Costa Rica and Qatar cost less in the current tournament.
For comparison: the transfer fee of the Argentine team is €645.2 million. This is, as they say, heaven and earth. Yes, the same Saudis brought her down to earth, but after that defeat, one of the World Cup favorites proved that he stumbled by accident and is ready to fight for the title.
And most importantly, Lionel Messi, around whom everything in the Argentina national team still revolves and on whose well-being 99% of her game depends, turned out to be in order.
The only advantage that the Australians still had was that they did not experience psychological pressure, realizing that they did not risk anything and no one would throw a stone at them anyway. True, they did not have the opportunity to relax and just enjoy the moment, since resisting the Argentines is not sugar. From the first minutes, Arnold’s team had to plow in defense and run after the ball, trying to take it away. But the hard-working Australians coped well with this and even periodically frightened the favorite with high pressure in the vicinity of his penalty area. Their strategy, in general, looked extremely transparent – to drag the opponent into viscous, power football, keep zeros on the scoreboard longer, and in the end make him nervous and make mistakes.
Actually, the Australian national team adopted the game system that the Mexicans used in the group stage match. Then their plans were actually destroyed by Messi with one blow, and now the great Argentinean has sharply intervened in the course of events, which at first seemed to be developing according to the Australian scenario. Indeed, at the gates of Matthew Ryan there were no dangerous moments close, and sometimes the Socceroos even seized the initiative. But in the 35th minute, they still let Messi into their garden, that is, into the penalty area. Alexis McAllister passed the ball to central defender Nicholas Otamendi, who was delayed in a positional attack, who briefly played along with his captain, who worked the ball more comfortably under his left foot and struck the bottom into the far bottom corner. With this goal, Messi marked his own anniversary, as he played the 1000th match in his professional career.
However, apart from Messi’s goal in the first half, nothing happened.
Nevertheless, the Argentines looked somehow hard, as if they did not have time to fully recover from the previous meeting with the Poles in the group, which took place three days ago.
At the same time, in the debut of the second half of the attacking midfielder, Alejandro Gomez was replaced by another central defender, Lisandro Martinez. It seems that the head coach of the Argentina national team Lionel Scaloni decided to play it safe and strengthen the defense to the detriment of the attack, apparently expecting the Australians to try to arrange a bulk and load a lot on horseback.
Meanwhile, his wards began to play weird when drawing the ball from his own penalty area. First, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez added gray hair to the coach when he was almost covered, and then Otamendi almost framed the goalkeeper with a risky back pass. But the Australian colleague Emiliano Martinez Ryan really did the trick. It is difficult to say why he started dribble under the pressure of two Argentines at once. And if Ryan circled Rodrigo De Paul, then Julian Alvarez took the ball from him and sent it into the net. And then Messi gave a beautiful solo and almost got to the gates of others.
In principle, the Argentines were quite enough for a quiet exit to the quarterfinals and 2:0, but in the 77th minute, Craig Goodwin’s long-range strike unexpectedly reached the goal. The Australian fired at the sparrows, somewhere to the side, but hit Enzo Fernandez, and the ball ricocheted off him on target.
An own goal instantly returned the intrigue to this match, and the Argentines were no longer calm until the very final whistle.
Soon, Australian left-back Aziz Behic dribbled into the penalty area and seemed to hit so that Emiliano Martinez would not have been able to save the team, but Argentina was saved by his namesake. As it turned out, that’s why Scaloni released Lisandro Martinez, who blocked Behic.
But star striker Lautaro Martinez again did not live up to the coach’s expectations. Messi took him one on one with Ryan twice, but he ruined both moments, and this could lead to big trouble. Indeed, at the end of stoppage time, the Australians got an excellent chance to transfer the game to overtime. 18-year-old Garang Kuol found himself all alone in front of Emiliano Martinez, and then the goalkeeper of the Argentina national team made his main salvation. Messi’s side won a hard-fought 2-1 win and made it to the quarter-finals of the World Cup, where they’re likely to face a much tougher match against the Netherlands. Well, the Australians leave the tournament heroes. They patted one of the contenders for the championship title nicely.
[ad_2]
Source link