He missed a penalty, and he didn’t rating, however Lionel Messi was but once more omnipresent on the night time, creating intricate ripples in tight areas, discovering paths for the ball to journey the place none existed. He’s not the younger creator scurrying all around the subject dictating the sport by his magnetic legs, however he now principally strolls, by no means presses, and might run (every now and then) in 10-yard bursts, however he’s nonetheless the driving drive when on the pitch.
For a second on the Stadium 974 it regarded like the celebs weren’t aligned as Messi’s penalty was stopped (fortieth minute), Wojciech Szczesny’s large proper hand delivering justice to the mushy spot kick the referee awarded for a softer brush by the goalkeeper on Messi’s brow. The Argentine captain can be good at theatrics (it’s not simply Neymar’s area), so he rolled on the ground however was up quickly.
The stadium felt quiet, the followers had been paranoid, the invisible scimitar of seeing Messi play one final time is all the time hanging within the air nowadays. However the world desires extra, as does Messi – that one final trophy meaning probably the most.
Argentina created sufficient in these first 45 minutes, Messi and Angel Di Maria, the veterans of this staff, discovering their years of chemistry but once more to push again a clueless Poland, which didn’t utilise its personal talisman. Robert Lewandoski was lonely upfront, with few balls reaching him that far as Poland defended this relentless Argentine storm. The staff from Europe simply had 4 photographs to Argentina’s 23, and none had been on track.
However with no objectives scored, the nervous power was throughout the park and Argentina got here out early, able to get its job carried out. The Poles made them wait as they trudged out no less than two minutes late. However the objective took much less time to return as Alexis Mac Allister of Scottish and Irish descent mistimed his contact to a Nahuel Molina reduce.
The not-so-good connection was ok to evade the fingertips of Szczesny to hit the put up after which settle inside. The drums and whistles got here to life as Latins, Malayalees, Bangladeshis, and Sudanese had been all one–blue and white-clad members of the Messi cult. The objective scorer was within the captain’s embrace, his staff was telling Messi that “your burden is ours to carry”.
For the subsequent 25 minutes, the purple-blue Argentines had been like a splotch of ink blotting each little bit of the inexperienced grass as Poland was confined to its personal half. The second objective arrived in spectacular vogue when Julian Alvarez picked up a move from Enzo Fernandez and buried the ball into the roof of the online within the 67th minute. The sport was received, the knockouts secured, and the missed penalty and the primary match loss had been on nobody’s thoughts.
However Argentina, now having fun with the liberation, might have scored just a few extra and ended the Polish goals. Lewandoski’s boys had been hanging by a thread as Mexico was successful the opposite recreation towards Saudi Arabia. The factors had been the identical, as was the objective distinction, and Poland was going by solely on yellow card counts – 4 to Mexico’s seven. Fairly quickly it was 5 to seven as Grzegorz Krychowuak was booked.
Poland defended however with out tackles and the sport turned somewhat comical with the European ears following a recreation elsewhere. However in the long run the Saudis scored, and this abject defeat didn’t put the Poles out of the World Cup.
