A flash of the most classic Messi and a mischievous action by Julián Álvarez ended the resistance of Australia, a team of estimable courage but little creativity, ideal sparring theorist for Argentina to continue gaining confidence while finding no major rivals. However, he suffered more than expected from the albiceleste, paid to his nerves as if they were already part of his epidermis. Somewhat lucky for Goodwin, he turned the last few minutes into pure tachycardia. Dibu Martínez, with a save at the last minute against Garang Kuol, saved his team from a tragedy that he did not deserve.
Argentina advances in this way, not driven by great football but benefited by a tour without hard-hitting fighters. Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Poland and Australia are not powers. With the first they lost and with the others they have cheated, if anything they were not bad against the Poles, but without dazzling.
Their first major rival in Qatar will be Van Gaal's Netherlands in the quarterfinals. We will see the response from Messi's teammates there, because there is no doubt about 10, he is plugged in. The albiceleste fans don't seem to worry about the game but rather about staying in the tournament. The show is put on by them. Always.
Australia did what they could and more. It is so far from everything that his people saw the game at six in the morning. Soccer is not the national sport, Australian football (nothing to do with conventional), rugby and cricket pass before it. Nobody expected the 'socceroos', which is how the team is known, to sneak into the round of 16 of the World Cup. And unless they made them pass hardships to Argentina. They added six points beating Tunisia and Denmark, which has a lot of merit, but even so they smelled like a perfect punching bag for Messi's ascendant Argentina. They fought with dignity not to be. They left Qatar proud, although not as proud as their manager predicted.
"We are going to win, of course, I led the Olympic team in Tokyo and we already beat them 2-0," Graham Arnold boasted before the game, inaugurating a psychological warfare that found no one on the other side. In that Argentina there was only Mac Allister. In the current one they are all, including Messi, a small detail. Graham Arnold, a disciple of Guus Hiddink, of whom he was an assistant, was actually trying to motivate his players, all of whom were unknown. His lineup against Argentina was a challenge for sports journalists. Only two play in powerful leagues, that is, Arnold actually has more merit than many established coaches. Take, for example, Jackson Irvine, a very tall striker who looks like a romantic fencer from the 19th century: he plays for S.Pauli, in the German second division. He moved well, he combined right on the first touch but his controls were a disaster.
Argentina began the match claiming a penalty for a handball. Papu Gómez did it effusively, which was the only novelty of Scaloni's eleven to the detriment of Di María, injured. From there the game was an albiceleste monologue with the ball and an Australian entrenchment exercise in a 4-4-2. The victory was a matter of wear, it happens that the domain was very wide and not very vertical, boring to be clear. Messi, who had dedicated himself to managing forces and studying where he would go first, appeared at the game to do so. And he broke it.
The goal, which fell in the 34th minute, deserves a paragraph. We have seen him score dozens of times but perhaps that is why he gains value. The execution was very fast. The 10 started to the right and looked for partners, first Otamendi and then Mac Allister, to focus until he found the sniper's hole. He shot low to the long post so Ryan would miss her.
Scaloni quickly took Papu off the field, who did little, and brought in Lisandro Martínez, who is a central defender. A substitution made so as not to risk, leaving Messi and Julián Álvarez alone at the top. The fatigue was noticeable in the Argentine legs and the margin of victory was slim. But Julián Álvarez managed to sentence. The City striker began as a substitute in the first two games but no one is going to remove him from the eleven. He gives another air to the front. The Australians made it easy for them this time, calamitous when it came to getting the ball played from behind. The goalkeeper hesitated, Álvarez stole it from him and turned it into the goal.
The match seemed doomed but it won in emotion at the end due to an Australian stroke of luck. Goodwin shot from distance, wide but Enzo Fernández accidentally redirected the ball into Dibu Martínez's goal. The surprise factor reappeared in the World Cup and Behich, an Australian left-back, then made a play more typical of Messi to tell his grandchildren. He will do it, although he didn't finish in a goal. The final scare was carried out by Garang Kuol. After Messi and Lautaro forgave everything, he was left alone against Dibu and he stopped it. The image of the Argentine defenders throwing themselves onto the pitch to celebrate described the drama experienced.
2 - Argentina: Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina (Ezekiel Palaces, m.80), Nicolas Otamendi, Christian Rosemary, Marcos Cuña (Nicolas Tagliafico, m.72); Enzo Fernandez, Rodrigo de Paul, Alexis Mac Allister (Gonzalo Montiel, m.80); Papu Gomez (Lisandro Martinez, m.50), Leo Messi and Julian Alvarez (Lautaro Martinez, m.72).
1 - Australia: Matthew Ryan, Milos Degenek (Fran Karacic, m.72), Harry Souttar, Kye Rowles, Aziz Behich; Matthew Leckie (Garang Kuol, m.72), Aaron Mooy, Jackson Irvine, Keanu Baccus (Adjin Hrustic, m.58); Mitchell Duke (Jamie MacLaren, m.72) y Riley McGree (Craig Goodwin, m.58).
Goals: 1-0, m.35: Messi; 2-0, m.57: Julián Álvarez; 2-1, m.77: Enzo Fernández, own goal.
Referee: Szymon Marciniak (POL). He showed yellow cards to Jackson Irvine and Milos Degenek, from Australia.
Incidents: Round of 16 match of the Qatar 2022 World Cup played at the Bin Ali stadium in Al Rahyan before 45,032 spectators.
