Saviour: Lionel Messi stepped up when Argentina needed him most
(Picture: Getty Images)Outside the Lusail Stadium, an Argentine supporter held a banner emblazoned with a smiling picture of his hero, arms spread wide in that familiar, corner flag-bound celebration.
“I will sacrifice all my dreams for Messi’s World Cup dream,” the slogan above it read, a little clunky, perhaps, but typical of what we had been led to believe about the difference between this iteration of Argentina and its predecessors coming into the tournament.
This, supposedly, was a team not only united behind its leader but determined to uplift him, blessed by the presence of the greatest player of all-time, but resolved not to be reliant solely upon him for deliverance. It was, allegedly, a two-way street, all a little bit JFK: ask not what Lionel Messi can do for your country, but - at his fifth and likely final World Cup - what you can do for him.
This was, evidently, all nonsense. For having failed to create a single opening of note in 64 minutes here, Argentina were once again left in the hands of their god.
Messi had hardly been blameless in the malaise. At one point, Rodrigo de Paul had his pocket picked on halfway and as Mexico broke and teammates in blue and white hared back in alarm, Messi simply wandered off the other way, like a man who’d sooner cross the street and keep on strolling than have to file a witness report on a mugging.
This is what Messi does these days, walks where others would be duty-bound to run, so much so that you fancy the rather animated Lionel Scaloni might’ve covered more ground in his technical area than his maestro did in the middle of the park. At 35, Messi, now more than ever, picks his moments, but he doesn’t half pick them well.
A 2-0 win over Mexico, forged by Messi’s stunning opener and eventually completed by substitute Enzo Fernandez’s curler, might not have been the most emphatic of responses to the freak 2-1 reverse against Saudi Arabia on Monday, nor did it go much of the way to justifying the Copa America champions’ place among the pre-tournament favourites. But on a night when defeat would have been terminal, Argentina are well and truly alive, knowing victory over Poland on Wednesday will see them into the last-16.
The outward response to the Saudi loss, Argentina’s first in more than three years, had been to urge calm but Scaloni’s five changes suggested a degree of internal panic.
The picture ahead of kick-off must’ve sparked similar feeling in Argentina’s fans, one of nightmarish deja vu as they returned to the scene of their Saudi humiliation just four days on and again found themselves faced with a wall of green.
These two countries are reported to have brought 140,000 fans between them to Doha, quite something when you consider there are barely more than 300,000 Qataris in the entire country. Between them, they created the tournament’s best atmosphere so far, so loud as to even occasionally be heard over the ear-splitting PA.
A notable addition to the staple pre-match playlist was Opus’ ‘Live Is Life’, the tune to which Diego Maradona jinked and juggled his way through that iconic warm-up ahead of Napoli’s 1989 Uefa Cup tie with Bayern Munich.
The hope was that Messi, perhaps the only player to have ever been capable of similar levels of artistry, could elevate this fixture beyond the scrappy stereotypes of Latin American football but by half-time, when there had been 15 fouls and just one shot on target, it was proving wishful thinking.
There was play-acting and dramatising, yes, but mostly it was brutal. Lisandro Martinez took a boot to the face, Marcos Acuna managed to keep control of the ball with one foot while inadvertently stamping on his challenger with the other and Gonzalo Montiel went into the book for almost cutting someone in half. At one point, the big screen showed a baby asleep on a mother’s shoulder in central Doha’s fan park, the infant’s drift towards the Land of Nod both understandable and just as well. This was post-watershed stuff.
It was a game full of stops, with too-long pauses between the starts. For once, five minutes of first-half added time did not seem enough and only deep into it did Argentina construct their first decent attack, winning a corner cleared by the first man.
Lautaro Martinez, who could not stay onside against the Saudis, could not get into the game at all here, hooked soon after the hour-mark having had just 14 touches. Messi had managed 40-odd by then but too many of them on halfway, jinking past one, two, three and still finding seven, eight, nine between him and the Mexican goal.
Finally, though, he found space - not much of it, but just enough - to receive Angel Di Maria’s pass, and drag deliberately low to Guillermo Ochoa’s left.
And then he was off, those arms spread wide again, Argentina just about on their way.
