Lionel Messi and Argentina continued their incredible World Cup run by soundly beating Croatia 3-0 to qualify for its sixth World Cup final — the second in eight years. It hopes to win a third title against France or Morrocco, which play tomorrow.
It was a strange game, as a matter of fact.
Just like it did against Brazil in the quarter-finals, the Croatian team tried to control the game’s tempo. However, if last Friday Croatia benefitted from a single mistake from the Brazilian team (which attacked with seven players up by one goal with three minutes to go) to capitalize and send the game to overtime, today it got a taste of its own medicine.
In the one moment Croatia’s number 10, Luka Modrić, failed to take decisive control of the ball, Enzo Fernández found Julián Álvarez in the box. He was fouled as he tried to kick past goalkeeper Dominik Livaković. Messi converted the penalty in the 32nd minute to break the tie.
In the semi-finals, Messi tied Germany’s Lothar Matthäus’s record for most World Cup appearances (25, a record he will break in Sunday’s final). The goal also made him Argentina’s all-time leading World Cup scorer, with 11 goals.
Before the break, Julián Álvarez extended the lead after steamrolling past the Croatian defense for a beautiful score.
In the quarter-finals, Argentina led 2-0 against the Netherlands but conceded a tie in the final moments of the game. This time, however, Croatia never truly threatened a comeback. In the 69th minute, Messi beat defender Joško Gvardiol in order to set up Álvarez’s second score.
With this massive win, Argentina so far follow its 1990 script, qualifying for the final after flirting with early elimination from the tournament.
Then, the Argentinians opened the 1990 tournament with a shocking win against Cameroon but bounced back and finished as runners-up — losing to Germany in the final. This time around, a 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia put the team on the brink of elimination from the second group-stage game. But once again, Argentina surged and qualified for the final.
Thirty-two years later, however, the Albiceleste hopes to write a different finish to that story.
Search
