The Argentina players instantly knew that Aziz Behich had made a mistake, and that Lionel Messi was going to “bring out that fire inside”. It gives them “goosebumps”, in the words of Lisandro Martinez.
Messi had actually been pretty poor in the first half-hour of the last-16 match against Australia, misplacing three successive passes. It was then that Behich got into a flare-up, pulling his shirt to also pull Messi over the line, and something changed. The Argentina players have seen it before.
