Luka Modric wasn’t hanging around. He walked swiftly to the sidelines, slung off the elastic around that had kept his hair in place and joined the Croatian bench. Nine minutes remained but this was not his night.
No, this was a night, a town and a time for the other No.10. Modric had his shot in Russia four years ago. Lionel Messi will march right back here to the cavernous, cacophonous confines of the Lusail Stadium on Sunday night and try to fill the last hole that remains in his wondrous journey.
On Tuesday night he turned a semi-final that shaped as a treacherous tussle of two styles, two narratives and two talismen into a one-man show. Well, one and a half. Messi has found a most perfect foil in the shape of Julian Alvarez and so the striker took a little corner of the stage as his own. But only because his captain carved it out for him and then swung the spotlight briefly his way too.
