He missed a penalty, and he didn’t rating, however Lionel Messi was but once more omnipresent on the evening, creating intricate ripples in tight areas, discovering paths for the ball to journey the place none existed. He is now not the younger creator scurrying everywhere in the subject dictating the sport via his magnetic legs, however he now principally strolls, by no means presses, and may run (occasionally) in 10-yard bursts, however he’s nonetheless the driving drive when on the pitch.
For a second on the Stadium 974 it appeared like the celebrities weren’t aligned as Messi’s penalty was stopped (fortieth minute), Wojciech Szczesny’s massive proper hand delivering justice to the comfortable spot kick the referee awarded for a softer brush by the goalkeeper on Messi’s brow. The Argentine captain will also 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 have been paranoid, the invisible scimitar of seeing Messi play one final time is all the time hanging within the air today. But the world desires extra, as does Messi – that one final trophy which means essentially the most.
Argentina created sufficient in these first 45 minutes, Messi and Angel Di Maria, the veterans of this group, 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 group from Europe simply had 4 pictures to Argentina’s 23, and none have been on the right track.
But with no targets scored, the nervous vitality was throughout the park and Argentina got here out early, able to get its job completed. The Poles made them wait as they trudged out at the very least two minutes late. But the aim took much less time to come back 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 submit after which settle inside. The drums and whistles got here to life as Latins, Malayalees, Bangladeshis, and Sudanese have been all one–blue and white-clad members of the Messi cult. The aim scorer was within the captain’s embrace, his group was telling Messi that “your burden is ours to carry”.
For the subsequent 25 minutes, the purple-blue Argentines have been like a splotch of ink blotting each little bit of the inexperienced grass as Poland was confined to its personal half. The second aim arrived in spectacular trend when Julian Alvarez picked up a cross from Enzo Fernandez and buried the ball into the roof of the online within the 67th minute. The sport was gained, the knockouts secured, and the missed penalty and the primary match loss have been on nobody’s thoughts.
But Argentina, now having fun with the liberation, might have scored just a few extra and ended the Polish goals. Lewandoski’s boys have been hanging by a thread as Mexico was profitable the opposite sport towards Saudi Arabia. The factors have been the identical, as was the aim distinction, and Poland was going via solely on yellow card counts – 4 to Mexico’s seven. Pretty quickly it was 5 to seven as Grzegorz Krychowuak was booked.
Poland defended however with out tackles and the sport turned slightly comical with the European ears following a sport elsewhere. But ultimately the Saudis scored, and this abject defeat didn’t put the Poles out of the World Cup.
