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Argentina’s Lionel Messi hopes to carry the trophy dwelling at his final World Cup sport as they face France within the closing.
Pre-tournament favourites Argentina stumbled on the first hurdle earlier than getting their act collectively to storm into one other closing, led by their inspirational skipper Lionel Messi who has moved to the highest of the match’s scoring charts.
Eight years in the past, Messi dragged Argentina to the World Cup closing solely to lose to Germany however this time he has a supporting solid and a tactically astute coach in Lionel Scaloni who has guided them to the showpiece match in Qatar.
Right here is how Argentina reached the World Cup 2022 closing:
Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia
Argentina got here into the match on the again of a 36-match unbeaten run and the very last thing Scaloni’s facet anticipated was to endure what was statistically the most important shock in World Cup historical past when Saudi Arabia beat them 2-1.
Messi scored a Tenth-minute penalty within the first half the place Argentina had three objectives disallowed for offside earlier than the Saudis struck twice within the second half to stun the South American champions.
Argentina 2-0 Mexico
In opposition to Mexico, Messi matched Diego Maradona’s document of 21 matches and eight objectives on the World Cup.
With the match deadlocked at 0-0 after greater than an hour, Messi picked his second after which picked his spot, firing dwelling from 20 metres to beat goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa by the narrowest of margins.
Substitute Enzo Fernandez scored with one other chic strike to seal the factors.
Poland 0-2 Argentina
In a match between Barcelona’s previous and current, it was the membership’s document scorer Messi who noticed his facet triumph whereas Robert Lewandowski, Barca’s prime scorer this season, completed the sport with no shot on objective.
Messi was lucky to win a controversial penalty after a VAR examine however missed from the spot as goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny saved his cool and denied the Argentinian skipper.
However, regardless of the miss, Messi was on the coronary heart of Argentina’s assaults and ran the present in his free function up entrance whereas Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez scored to make sure their facet topped the group.
Final-16: Argentina 2-1 Australia
The celebs appeared to align for Messi of their last-16 conflict with Australia as he scored in his thousandth match to maneuver previous Maradona’s World Cup tally.
The objective was classic Messi, nearly as if time stood nonetheless for everybody else besides the 35-year-old, who reacted rapidly to a brief layoff in little house to curve the ball dwelling at the same time as 4 Australian defenders tried to shut the hole.
Alvarez made it 2-0 however an personal objective from Fernandez arrange a tense end wherein Argentina clung on for the victory.
Quarterfinals: Netherlands 2-2 Argentina (3-4 on penalties)
4 objectives, an equaliser on the demise, brawls with staff benches emptying out, a tense penalty shootout, accusations of unsportsmanlike conduct, 16 yellow playing cards and one crimson card – the Netherlands-Argentina sport had all of it.
A shell-shocked Argentina recovered from the last-gasp equaliser and within the shootout, goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made two saves earlier than Lautaro Martinez completed issues off to remove the Dutch in an ill-tempered sport.
Semifinal: Argentina 3-0 Croatia
A match in opposition to Croatia, a staff who had not gained a knockout sport in regular time since 1998, was set to check Argentina however they handed with flying colors as Messi nearly single-handedly dispatched the 2018 runners-up.
Alvarez earned the penalty that Messi transformed with aplomb and likewise scored twice, his first objective – a implausible solo run from the midway line to beat three defenders.
However as soon as once more it was Messi operating issues, setting Alvarez via on objective with the essential contact earlier than his personal run from the midway line and dribble previous defender Josko Gvardiol arrange his younger strike companion for the straightforward end.
Argentina will play holders France within the closing on Sunday.
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