Argentina have settled on their midfield trio but the nervy win over Australia showed that Lionel Messi could have used some help in the attack.
— Argentina edged past Australia 2-1 on Saturday at the Ahmed bin Ali Stadium to tee up a World Cup quarterfinal clash with the Netherlands.
Goals from Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez saw coach Lionel Scaloni’s side through against a spirited Socceroos side who had chances to force the match into extra time.
Messi’s opener in the 35th minute was the sole shot on goal from either side in the first half, while Alvarez profited on a goalkeeping error from the usually dependable Mathew Ryan to score their second after 57 minutes.
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Australia pinned one back with a deflected effort from Craig Goodwin in the 77th minute ricocheting off Enzo Fernandez for an own goal and had a glorious chance after Aziz Behich’s wondrous run. Both teams had chances in the final throes of the match with Lautaro Martinez firing over from close range, while Thomas Deng had an effort well-saved by Emiliano Martinez in the last play of the match.
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It was all going to plan for Australia, until they poked Lionel Messi.
It was in the 36th minute. Australia were holding Argentina, having restricted them to one long-range effort from Papu Gomez which troubled the cornerflag more than anyone near the goal. So far, so good. But then Aziz Behich annoyed him. There was a tussle on the touchline, shirts pulled. Messi stood over the freekick. The first attempt was cleared.
But then he sparked it into life. He found Alexis Mac Allister who nudged it to Julian Alvarez. Alvarez laid it off to Messi who shimmied and fired past Ryan. It was another trademark brilliant moment for the man who still holds matches in the palm of his hand.
But you feel Argentina haven’t quite yet got the best out of Messi at this World Cup. He’s more a playmaker, master orchestral conductor, these days rather than the firecracker. And he needs players running off him to allow him to bring the match to life. While Alvarez offered this, Gomez didn’t. Argentina need to address this ahead of the Netherlands, but this again was Messi’s night.
Messi has already had countless milestone moments in his record-breaking career. But there were a couple more tonight. Firstly, this was his 1,000th professional match. He also tied Paolo Maldini for the third most games played in the men’s World Cup — he now stands on 23 matches, behind Miroslav Klose’s 24 and Lothar Matthaus’ 25.
If Argentina still here come Dec. 18 with the trophy on the line, then Messi will break that record, much to the delight of his devoted fans.
After all the tinkering across the group stage, it looked like Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had calmed down. He made just one change from the win over Poland with Angel di Maria out injured, which meant he kept the faith in the same midfield trio of Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez and Rodrigo de Paul.
All three played a key role in the match and looked a settled unit. De Paul was the standout of the three — and it was his pressing that caused keeper Maty Ryan to make his calamitous error to gift Julian Alvarez Argentina’s second.
