Argentina in World Cup quarterfinals: Messi scores and overtakes Maradona

Narrow win against Australia

Lionel Messi has scored for the first time in a World Cup knockout stage in his 1,000th competitive professional game, paving Argentina’s way to the quarter-finals in Qatar. In the 2-1 win against Australia, Messi scored his ninth goal in a World Cup with the 1-0 lead and overtakes icon Diego Armando Maradona in the statistics. But they had more trouble against the “Socceroos” than the title co-favourites would have liked. With Australia’s last action, goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez saved the win in dire need. Now it comes to the duel with the Netherlands.

It was Messi’s 94th goal in Argentina’s jersey. In front of 45,032 spectators, Manchester City’s Julián Álvarez (57) scored the second goal after a serious goalkeeper error. With an untenable deflected hit after a shot by Craig Goodwin (67th), which was counted as an own goal by Enzo Fernández, Australia made it exciting again.

In the round of the top eight, Argentina will meet the Netherlands at the Lusail Stadium next Friday – among other things, defeated opponents of the Albiceleste in the home World Cup final in 1978 and in the semi-finals in Brazil in 2014. For the blatant outsider Australia around the former Bundesliga professional Mathew Leckie and St. Pauli captain Jackson Irvine, the wondrous journey in Qatar ended in the round of 16, just like in Germany in 2006. The “socceroos” have never gotten any further.

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had nevertheless warned against them. And then he also had to change his “winning team”. Ángel Di María, Messi’s long-time strike partner, still pinched his thigh. Using it from the start was too risky. After five and four changes in the starting line-up, this time only Papu Gómez was new to the team. The 34-year-old from FC Sevilla initially fell back slightly on the left flank to strengthen the wing on which the former 1860 Munich professional Milos Degenek also plays for the Australians.

Messi initially acted in the center of attack at his next World Cup show, but quickly fell behind against the deeply defending Australians, where St. Pauli’s second division professional Jackson Irvine saw a yellow card after fifteen minutes. Patience was required.

Behind the Australians’ goal, there wasn’t much to celebrate for a few hundred fans in yellow – except that coach Graham Arnold’s team made it difficult for the Argentines to play in the beginning. Even after 30 minutes, the South Americans didn’t get a shot at the goal of captain Mathew Ryan, who, like Leckie, played his tenth World Cup game – more than any other Australian before.

Already in the 2-0 win against Poland, the Argentines had to make the game, the opponent remembered to defend. Australia acted similarly, but better than the team around star striker Robert Lewandowski, who have to play against world champions France on Sunday. Australia made it smarter. And the furious Messi, who delivered a jersey plucking on the outside line with Australia’s Aziz Behich. This same Behich immediately fouled Gmez – there was a free kick, executed by Messi, as in previous games clearly the best man in his team.

The Australians, who had been flawless defensively up to that point, couldn’t get the ball out of the danger zone and Alexis Mac Allister found the ball at the moved-up central defender Nicolás Otamendi. He applauded, and then Messi came. A flat flick with the left, like out of the Messi textbook, into the far corner. He stretched his hands up, the stadium became a sky blue and white bouncy castle.

The Argentinians didn’t have much of the force of the game against Poland this time. It was more the motto: don’t catch anyone in the back and the captain will do it in front, who is appearing very differently in Qatar these days than in his sometimes listless performances at the World Cup embarrassment of Russia. For the second goal, however, Messi was just a spectator when Australia keeper Ryan made a capital error and lost the ball to Álvarez six meters from goal. The decision.

With the constant singing of tens of thousands of fans in Argentinian jerseys, it was now possible to play more freely. The fact that Scaloni took out the weak offensive man Gómez and brought in another defender in Lisandro Martínez only paid off to a limited extent. After Goodwin’s shot, which Fernández unluckily deflected into his own goal, Argentina wobbled, but only briefly. Again and again it was Messi who shone with his skills and put his team-mates in the limelight. The ball just didn’t want to go into the goal again.

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