Leo Messi had to wait 35 years, 5 months and 19 days to rise alongside Diego Maradona, writes Janne Palomäki.
Leo Messi has finally redeemed the wishes of the Argentines. PDO
Not a single Argentinian player had even been born when the national team last time celebrated the soccer world championship.
Passionate about the country fans have been waiting 36 long yearsso that someone could repeat Diego Maradona’s feats in the World Cup in Mexico.
That wait ended on Tuesday.
The first semi-final of the Qatar tournament had been played for 69 minutes when Lionel Messi caught the ball on the wing. He challenged the best defender of the World Cup, Joško Guardioli, to a duel.
The flea made the star topper seasick by keeping the ball glued to his leg, and spinning like a top in front of him.
In the end, the Leipzig top player did not know which way he had to defend. At that point, Julián Álvarez had already nailed the 3-0 final numbers.
Naturally from Messi’s pass.
It was the Argentina captain’s eighth assist leading to a goal in the World Cup tournament. At the same time, he rose alongside Maradona to the top of the statistics.
Kirppu had overtaken Gabriel Batistuta as the best scorer of Argentina’s finals by finishing off the winning goal in the opening period.
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Argentina’s players are celebrating the fifth World Cup final in the country’s history. PDO
It is easy to say that the captain of Argentina has finally fulfilled all the expectations that have been placed on him since 2006, also in the national team.
This is Leo Messi’s Fifth World Cup tournament.
And clearly the best.
Argentina’s tournament started with a bang, but right now nobody remembers the opening loss to Saudi Arabia experienced at this same Lusail stadium.
It must be remembered that the Albiceleste came to that match on a streak of 36 unbeaten matches.
In the next struggle against Mexico, even the Blue and Whites’ initial group qualification was at risk.
It was then that Leo Messi scored his first goal of the tournament. He took this team on his backpack.
Since then, he has picked up his pace as the tournament has progressed and we all want to see where Kirppu will go in Sunday’s final.
In the opening period of Tuesday’s semi-final, Argentina already raced to a decisive 2–0 lead against Croatia.
First, at just over half an hour, 21-year-old Enzo Fernández sent a delicious vertical pass to his friend Álvarez. Just six months ago, Fernández and Álvarez were playing for their alma mater, River Plate.
Together, they dreamed of getting into the national team.
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Joško Gvardiol (left) did not stay with Messi. PDO
Now the guys are playing the main role in driving Argentina to the World Cup final.
Álvarez ran away from Fernández’s pass, and Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livaković had to save the young striker.
Italian referee Daniele Orsato showed the ball to the penalty spot. Messi bombed the ball handsomely into the top corner and Argentina had already reached the final.
Five minutes later, the game tool was once again behind Livaković’s back. The hit will surely haunt the sleep of both Josip Juranović and Borna Sosa, as both had a chance to stop Álvarez’s rise.
Twosome only succeeded in kicking Lusail’s cooled air.
Croatia have had an unfathomable ability to refuse to believe a budding defeat.
Or at least that’s how it seemed before Tuesday. The checkered shirts had conceded the opening goal to Canada, Japan and Brazil in the World Cup in Qatar.
Despite that, the team had cleared its way to the World Cup semi-finals.
However, something changed on Tuesday. The semi-final offered Croatia its first contact with the main stage of the Games in Qatar.
At the same time, it was last.
The sign language of the players told of submission already at the end of the opening period.
Head coach Zlatko Dalić tried to wake up the team during the break. It was clear that the 56-year-old coach had to come up with something miraculous, because the Balkans went to the locker room with a 0-2 deficit.
Nikola Vlašić and Mislav Oršić came right at the beginning of the second period. Bruno Petković followed just five minutes later.
Dalić also knew that this time the lead had gotten too big. Argentina controlled the start of the second period, although Croatia seemingly held the ball.
In the middle of the period, Messi humiliated Guardioli and became immortal once and for all.
Argentina enters Sunday’s final as the champion of its dominant continent. And after Tuesday’s semi-final performance, also as the gold favorite.