Croatian star Modric is crying, Argentine genius Messi is close to realizing his dream! Thanks to this talented team captain, Argentina eliminated Croatia 3-0 in the semi-finals of the World Cup in Qatar and advanced to the final. Will play France or Morocco on Sunday!
Lionel Messi, currently playing for Paris Saint-Germain, opened the scoring for Argentina with a penalty in the 34th minute of the first half, before partner Alvarez doubled the score in the 39th minute: 2-0! The country reached the World Cup final for the sixth time, giving Argentina the possibility of winning the title for the third time after two titles in 1978 and 1986.
Lionel Messi and Croatia’s Luka Modric, two world soccer stars aged 35 and 37, will fade out at Qatar’s Lusail Stadium on Tuesday night.
2018 Ballon d’Or winner Luka Modric may not be his last stand if he returns in Saturday’s race for third place. But it is very likely that people will never see him wearing a plaid shirt in a major event again.
And Messi will once again lead the Albigails to the fore in the World Cup final, either against France’s rising star Kylian Mbappe or against Morocco’s superconstellations. If all goes well, he will break the World Cup appearance record by then, reaching 26 games, one more than Germany’s Lothar Matthaus.
Most importantly, he will attempt to crown his fabulous career with the only World Cup title missing from his record, whereby Messi will become a legend for his country, who still adores 1986 to this day world champion Maradona.
Argentina started the game with Croatia fearing each other, Croatia had more possession, but the team’s talented Modric, Brozovic or Kovacic, were recyclers and creators, but they were not shooters.
On the other side of the pitch, Argentina didn’t really lose any obvious chances. The South American champions then broke the deadlock with two clever moves during a frantic five-minute contest.
In the first half of the game, Alvarez rushed into the opponent’s central space. Messi took the penalty after a collision foul by Croatian goalkeeper Livakovic, with a powerful shot into the top right corner of the goal (1-0, 34′).
The same Alvarez started his fantastic run after picking up another counter-attacking ball in his own half, flicking off the opposing defender who came too late in the middle of the field first, and with a clever light work, bypassing the hapless goalkeeper. Livakovic (2-0, 39′).
Minutes after the break, Croatia coach Dalic made a risky gamble. He replaced the outstanding midfielder Brozovic with Petkovic in an attempt to put more pressure on Argentina’s centre-backs.
It was a wrong choice, and Croatia was inexorably opened up by the opponent. Messi performed a solo performance on the right side of the penalty area to deliver caviar (69′) to the ready Alvarez: 3-0.
Wednesday’s semi-final between France and Morocco is expected to be a very close one, with the winner going to a showdown with Argentina.
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