On Saturday, December 3, at the World Cup in Qatar, after the matches of the 1/8 finals, the first quarter-final pair was determined. The team of Argentina will be the company of the Netherlands national team in the fight for a ticket to the semi-finals.
World Cup 2022. 1/8 finals
Argentina - Australia - 2:1
Goals: Messi (35), Alvarez (58) - Fernandez (77).
The wards of Lionel Scaloni, who received a good cap at the start of the tournament (1:2 in the duel against Saudi Arabia), approached the match at the Khalifa Stadium in Doha with all responsibility and did the right thing. Although at first it seemed that the meeting would turn into an easy walk for the reigning champion of South America.
Already in the 35th minute, the legendary Lionel Messi scored the 789th goal in his 1000th match in his professional career and brought his team ahead - 1:0, and at the same time removed the curse of the world championship playoffs. Only in the ninth duel! It’s hard to believe, but the seven-time winner of the Golden Ball used to score at world championships only in the group. Moreover, on the occasion of the anniversary, the number 10 Argentines also overtook Cristiano Ronaldo in the number of goals in major tournaments (22 each).
Confidence of the Argentine fans in the success strengthened in the 58th minute forward “River Plate” Julian Alvarez, whose contract belongs to “Manchester City” - 2:0.
But the end of the meeting turned out to be very valid, and only the luck and skill of the goalkeeper of Argentina helped Messi and the company to keep the victory after Enzo Fernandez scored an own goal in the 77th minute.
The Argentines will challenge the ticket to the semi-finals of the tournament with the Dutch in the confrontation on December 9 in Er Rayyan. If anything, Messi, who surpassed Diego Maradona (8 goals), in order to catch up with the top scorer of the Argentina national team at the World Cup Gabriel Batistuta (10 accurate shots), it remains only to hit the opponent’s goal once.
Recall that other pairs of the 1/8 finals of the world championship formed: England - Senegal, France - Poland, Japan - Croatia, Brazil - South Korea, Morocco - Spain and Portugal - Switzerland.
2022 World Cup top scorers: 3 goals - Lionel Messi (Argentina), Alvaro Morata (Spain), Kylian Mbappe (France), Marcus Rashford (England), Cody Gakpo (Netherlands), Ener Valencia (Ecuador).
Earlier, FACTS reported that the Brazilian national team suffered its first defeat at the 2022 World Cup.
Photo fifa.com
Source: Fakty
