Argentina is the first nation to qualify for the 2022 World Cup final. The Argentines beat Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday (December 13th) in Lusail, Qatar.
Scorer, then decisive passer, Lionel Messi still played a key role in the victory of his team: “We are going to play the last match and that is what we wantedreacted the Argentine number ten after the meeting. We are here to take advantage of all this and I have benefited enormously from this World Cup since my arrival. I was very confident of this group. We knew what we were worth. »
However, everything had started rather badly on Tuesday evening in the semi-finals for the Argentines. Largely dominated in the first half hour of play, they took advantage of a hazardous defensive placement by Dejan Lovren to send Julian Alvarez towards the Croatian goal. The striker misses his duel against Dominik Livakovic, but is hit by the opposing goalkeeper. The Italian referee of the meeting, Daniele Orsato, whistles a penalty, despite Croatian disputes.
Already a scorer in the round of 16 and quarter-finals, Lionel Messi transformed the sentence with an unstoppable strike (1-0, 34e). His fifth goal of the competition which allows him both to come back up to Kylian Mbappé and to become the top scorer in the history of the Albiceleste in the final phase of the World Cup, overtaking Gabriel Batistuta in the standings with 11 goals.
Less than five minutes later, Julian Alvarez, again him, launches into a fabulous rush. After a loss of the Croatian ball near the Argentinian surface, he seized the ball in his camp, went back fifty meters with the ball at his feet against a defense which preferred to retreat than to try to block his way, then benefited from two favorable counterattacks in the opposing surface and this time won his duel against Livakovic (2-0, 39e).
The Argentinians even have a 3-0 ball just before half-time, but Livakovic manages to divert a header from Alexis Mac Allister, completely lonely on a corner (42e).
Messi’s masterpiece, Alvarez’s double
On returning from the locker room, the Croats resumed their enterprise of domination, while the Albiceleste retreated. Despite everything, it is the Argentinians who create the rare opportunities. Livakovic once again postpones the deadline ahead of Messi (58e), but could do nothing on Alvarez’s point-blank strike ten minutes later.
Party along the right side, Lionel Messi overflows and resists Josko Gvardiol. He stops, pretends to turn around, then dribbled the Croatian defender, entered the area and served his teammate who only had to push the ball into the back of the net to score a double (3-0, 69e).
Unable to raise their heads, the last twenty minutes are an ordeal for the Croats, who, with the exception of an occasion five minutes from the end, have no possibility of coming back to score. The Croatian coach even released his number ten, Luka Modric ten minutes from time. An exit in the form of resignation.
“It’s a deserved loss.said coach Zlatko Dalic after the meeting in comments reported by Agence France-Presse. We have created some good situations, but without real opportunity. We had prepared, but we lacked a real striker. We lost, but I can’t fault the boys. » Four years after the first final in their history, the Croats will play the match for third place on Saturday.
The Argentinians qualify for the sixth final in their history. Winners in 1978 and 1986, they remain on two defeats in 1990 and 2014. Eight years after the disappointment in Brazil against Germany (1-0, after extra time), Lionel Messi will therefore have a new chance to win the last title which missing from his list on Sunday. It will be against France or against Morocco.
Our selection of articles on the 2022 World Cup
Find all our content on the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, from November 20 to December 18.
- Know everything : The calendar, the results, the rankings, the “unofficial” guide to the 2022 World Cup
- Investigations: France-Qatar, a friendship full of resources; Award of the World Cup to Qatar: Sarkozy, Platini and the takeover of PSG at the heart of the French justice investigation; For the environment, an event at the critical stage
- Report : To the Mbappé-Giroud duo, France very grateful against Poland
- Editorials: The World Cup of excesses; FIFA at the stage of blindness
- Decryptions: The delicate speech of footballers on human rights; The reasons for the discomfort; A very political “World Cup”
- Reports: In the “engine room” of Qatar, where live the immigrant workers whom Doha does not want to see; In Qatar, a pan-Arab festival atmosphere; At the University of Dakar, “when Senegal plays, we forget all our problems”
- Tribune (Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International) : “By calling to ‘focus on football’, Gianni Infantino is trying to exonerate FIFA from any responsibility”
- Portraits : Walid Regragui, the new signature of the Atlas Lions; Harry Maguire, a certain idea of English football
- Time.news: “Changing the method of calculating additional time in a match is to take the risk of breaking the game”; “With video refereeing, the goals are conditional, the emotions too”
- Podcast: Ecology, human rights, corruption: why the 2022 World Cup in Qatar is a problem
- Video : A “carbon neutral” World Cup? What lies behind Qatar’s untenable promises; For the first time, a match will be refereed by women