Josko Gvardiol is, according to many, the best defender at this World Cup. So here’s what happened after 69 minutes when he came up against Lionel Messi.
Gvardiol was beaten. Not once, not twice, but three times in the same mesmerising run along the left flank. Gvardiol is young, 15 years Messi’s junior. Yet in that moment, the gap between the men seemed reverse.
It was as if Messi was the younger man, full of confidence, arrogance and vim, as if Gvardiol was the old warhorse, led into battle one last time, but unable to keep up with his rival.
When the move was over – and the ball in the net – he carried on jogging across his own six yard box, helpless resignation in every step. One could almost hear the internal monologue. ‘What was I supposed to do? You all saw him. What could I possibly have done?’
He did quite a lot, as it was. The only reason he got beaten by Messi three times was that he recovered to catch him up twice. First time, Messi simply outpaced his man, ball stuck to his foot the way a magician might use Velcro.
Gvardiol came back at him, kept pace, but Messi did him again, getting the ball nearer the by-line. Again, Gvardiol made it back into position, at which point Messi turned, retraced his steps, turned back, flipped the switched on his tormented opponent and cut the ball back for Julian Alvarez at the near post. It was a tap-in. The assist of the tournament? That doesn’t do it justice.
An assist can be the simplest square pass, just as this was a simple cut back. What Messi did was more than assist. It was a creation. It was the Big Bang of assists.
To think he had never scored a goal in a World Cup knockout game until coming to Qatar. Now he has one in a last 16 match, a quarter-final and a semi-final. He got Argentina’s first here, from the penalty spot, breaking Gabriel Batistuta’s record of 11 World Cup goals for Argentina.
What a tournament Messi is having now: five goals and four assists his part in Argentina’s 12 goals. To think this started with defeat to Saudi Arabia. It ends on Sunday back here in Lusail.
Will Messi emulate Diego Maradona, in Argentina’s sixth World Cup final – only Germany have made it to more. France may yet have a say but, make no mistake, this is Messi’s 1986. If he is going to own a World Cup, it will be this one.
Croatia don’t score first in World Cup knock-out matches. Even so, by half-time, they were left with a mountainous climb, even by their standards Trailing Argentina by two goals, they looked shell-shocked, and no wonder.
Until Argentina went ahead, Croatia had looked marginally the superior side. They had the bulk of possession and Luka Modric was having more impact on the game than his talismanic counterpart, Lionel Messi.
Indeed, there was a worry Messi might be injured. He appeared to be gingerly feeling a hamstring. He was walking a lot – although that is as much his trademark these days. He’s the greatest walking footballer in the world. It sent a shiver of panic around the Lusail Stadium that he might be stricken. Messi’s World Cup destiny is one of the competition’s narratives. This may well be his tournament despite coach Lionel Scaloni’s belief he could skip around the aging process like it was another hapless defender.
So it was a relief after a brief period of uncertainty, the ball entered his vicinity and Messi sprinted after it. No problems there it seemed; or maybe he had simply had enough of watching his team, and the game, drift. Messi’s re-engagement coincided, as it so often does, with Argentina coming to life, too.
In the 25th minute, Julian Alvarez had the first real chance of the game. A shot from outside the area which Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic scrambled across to save. At the other end, Ivan Perisic tried a chip which almost caught out goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. And that was where Croatia’s problems begun,
They thought they should have had a corner, because Perisic’s clip took a deflection but Daniele Orsato, the Italian referee, gave a goal-kick. From that came the move that ended in the first goal.
A pass by Enzo Fernandez put Alvarez clear and he was taken out by Livakovic as he tried to take the ball past him. Some felt it harsh because, frankly, what was the goalkeeper supposed to do? Jump out of the way? Yet had Alvarez been able to meet the ball on the other side he probably would have scored – but he couldn’t because he had been felled by Livakovic.
At first, it wasn’t clear that Orsato hadn’t tried to play advantage – if so, that would have been embarrassing. In the end, justice was done. He gave the penalty, booked Livakovic for the foul and Chelsea’s Mateo Kovacic for arguing about it.
No argument about Messi’s penalty, though. It was the one Harry Kane attempted, without success, against France. Hard and high, but the right side of the crossbar, leaving Livakovic no chance. From their next attack of meaning, Argentina went further ahead.
What a goal this was. Manchester City have just one player remaining at this tournament – Tottenham have three, even West Ham have two – and he doesn’t get in their team, but what a World Cup Alvarez is having.
When Marcelo Brozovic’s ball was cut out, it was Messi who put Alvarez away, and was taken out in the process. Orsato smartly played advantage, allowing Alvarez to run straight down the middle at the opposition, much as Michael Owen had against Argentina in 1998.
He got a couple of breaks, a first tackle that rebounded off him and only propelled the ball farther forward, and then a second completely missed by a panicked Borna Sosa. It left Alvarez running directly at Livakovic and he leathered the ball past the goalkeeper from close range.
Argentina were almost done, and would have been had a near post header from Nicolas Tagliafico not been superbly saved by Livakovic two minutes before half-time.
