The beginnings of the World Cup: Lionel Messi’s triumphant performance against Mexico and Brazil in the semifinal dileptonic final

Lionel Messi wants to lead Argentina to the World Cup glory, but it is not going to happen until the year 2022, when the tournament will be held in Qatar.

The opening 80 minutes were all about Messi. The captain of Argentina converted the penalty to give his country the lead. His deft touch was the key to springing the move that led to La Albiceleste.

Messi was very involved in his team’s famous victory, but the future is bright for Argentina with a number of young stars impressing.

Messi spent parts of the game feeling his left hamstring, though you wouldn’t have guessed he was in any discomfort by the way his mazy, twisting run bamboozled Joško Gvardiol, one of this tournament’s best defenders, to create Argentina’s third goal.

The magician that is Messi still has the ability to deliver some of the most brilliant moments in his career as he plays into his twilight career.

His goal against Mexico in the group stages, the assist against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals and his overall performance in Tuesday’s semfinal have provided yet more memorable moments to a nation of 45 million people that consider him to be not far from a deity.

The Argentine embassy in Qatar said tens of thousands of fans have traveled to the country for the World Cup, and it seemed that all of them were inside the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday night.

As the clocked ticked deeper into injury time and the victory was beyond doubt, the Argentina bench and coaching staff began to join in with the rhythmic songs and chants that were being bellowed from the stands.

The players of Argentina stood in front of the wall of blue and white shirts that their fans had built to honor them after the final whistle.

It is almost impossible to believe that this is the same team that lost 2-1 to Saudi Arabia just three weeks ago in its opening group stage match – a performance so insipid and devoid of inspiration that it left some wondering whether Argentina would even make it out of the group.

An extra-time winner for Lionel Messi’s Argentina despite a disappointing performance of his predecessor Luka Modri in the tournament final

The World Cup would be the last chance for both of the captains to get their hands on the trophy, as Luka Modri and Messi have both lost in the finals.

The players from Croatia and Japan played as many minutes as possible, winning on penalties against Japan and Brazil, despite being outmuscled by the other team in the beginning.

Modri, a man who has a reputation as one of Croatia’s best ever players, has been one of the best centralists in the world at the moment.

Argentina, similarly, has also improved as the tournament has gone on – though it was hardly able to get any worse after that stunning defeat to Saudi Arabia.

The team that played that day is almost a different one now that it appears that it is going to be Messi’s last dance.

As a result of this, the only way that Croatia was going to win was if Modri gave away the ball in the middle and Gvardiol failed to track the dangerous Manchester City forward.

A poor cross by Borna Sosa led to Argentina’s first goal as Saul was able to run three-quarters of the pitch and bury the ball past Livakovic.

Only a stunning reflex save from Livakovic prevented the score getting any worse for Croatia before half time, but it would take something extra special, even for a team that is used to conjuring footballing miracles, to come back from this one.

However, Croatia offered little going forward in the second half, a combination of weary attacking play and stout Argentine defending, and its stay of execution lasted until the 70th minute.

Lionel Messi and his Argentina teammates were certainly made to suffer, but eventually, they got their hands on the World Cup trophy Sunday, after beating France on penalties in arguably the greatest final in the tournament’s history.

In the closing stages of normal time,Mbappé single-handedly took a control of the game, scoring two goals in 2 minutes to send it to extra time.

Messi then looked to have scored an extra-time winner with his second of the game but Mbappé, with the bit between his teeth, forced the match into penalties after completing his hattrick from the spot in the 118th minute.

In Sunday’s final, Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez showing his ability to distract the French takers, throwing the ball away before Aurélien Tchouaméni attempt, which flew wide. France’s previous attempt – from Kingsley Coman – had been saved by Martinez.

He saved the winner in the final moments of the extra time, when it seemed like he was going to score.

An unforgettable moment of soccer: Argentina’s best world cup final spt-intl and a tribute to Lionel Scaloni

Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni, who guided the team through highs and lows at Qatar 2022, was emotional after the match and struggled to hold back the tears as he was embraced by his players.

There are so many reasons why it will be remembered, for example, Messi’s moment of history, the seesaw nature of the game that raged from end to end, and Mbappe’s hat-trick in defeat.

The image of Messi on his teammates’ shoulders with the World Cup trophy finally in his grasp is an unforgettable one that will live on for a long time.

This was supposed to be a match between Messi and Kylian Mbappe, who had been tipped to replace the Argentine as the best player in the world.

Over two hours of soccer, these was two players – at two different points of their careers – demonstrating the beautiful game in vivid, glorious technicolor.

One team had already experienced the intensity of that pressure cooker atmosphere, and one didn’t, so they emerged from the other side.

Argentina got the better of the Netherlands in the quarterfinals in an epic which culminated in a penalty shootout, and one which saw the South American team display distraction and delaying tactics to arguably mentally monster their opponents.

A penalty shootout is arguably unlike anything else in sports – it’s a modern day duel and a World Cup final with so much at stake only heightens the tension and drama.

It was in the 35th minute, when a flick round the corner from Alexis Mac Allister to Messi, relieved some pressure on the Argentina defense as France pushed for an equalizer.

Mac Allister was in position to square the ball to ngel Di Mara as he ran to score Argentina’s second goal.

Marcus Thuram found the ball in the air on the edge of Argentina’s penalty area after he scored a penalty to cut the deficit to two.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/19/football/argentina-france-best-world-cup-final-spt-intl/index.html

Buenos Aires: Muchachos, Una noche me emborracho, a song by Fernando Romero

The World Cup of 1950 was won by West Germany, four years after Brazil was upset by the plucky nation of U.S.

Geoff Hurst scored the first World Cup final hat-trick in the 1966 final between England and West Geramy. Hurst’s second goal is still talked about 56 years later – had the ball crossed the line? The officials said that it did, and England won 4-2.

Four years later in Munich, host West Germany came from behind to win 2-1 against a star-studded Netherlands team – made up of Johan Cruyff and Johan Neeskens – to win its second World Cup.

DiegoMaradona drove his team to its second title in eight years, beating West Germany 3-2 in the final.

In 1998 France hosted and won its first ever World Cup, mainly because of the genius of Zidane who scored twice in the final, to beat a strong Brazil side.

With the Argentina squad landing in Buenos Aires in the early hours of Tuesday morning, you can be sure numerous renditions of “Muchachos, ahora nos volvimos a ilusionar” will be heard in the streets of the Argentine capital.

Fernando Romero, a teacher, wrote a song called Muchachos, una noche me emborracho, which means “Boys, tonight I will get drunk”, which included mentions of Lionel Messi and Diego Maradona.

“Boys, now we have hope again/I want to win the third/I want to be world champion/ And Diego/We can see him from heaven/With Don Diego and La Tota [Maradona’s parents]/Encouraging Lionel.”

Las Malvinas: A Song Associated with a Great War between Argentine and United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s

‘Las Malvinas’ is the Spanish language name given to the Falkland Islands, which sit 480 kilometers off the coast of Argentina and was the site of a bloody three-month war in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom, during which more than 600 Argentine soldiers lost their lives.

In the 1986 World Cup, England and Argentina met in a sporting arena for the first time since the war in the South American country.

“Although we said before the game that football had nothing to do with the Malvinas War, we knew that a lot of Argentine kids had died there, that they had mowed us down like little birds.”

Before Qatar, 1986 was the last time Argentina had won the World Cup and Romero’s new lyrics encapsulate the hope Argentine fans had that Lionel Scaloni’s men could finally add a third star to the famed light blue and white jerseys. Argentina’s first World Cup title was secured in 1978 when the South American nation hosted the tournament.

It is expected that the new version of the song will be much more popular come the end of the year.