Lionel Messi unlocked a very difficult game with a goal.
It was Lionel Messi’s thousandth game and he was in charge of making it unforgettable.
With a very tight game, Argentina beat Australia 2-1 and will face the Netherlands this Friday in the quarterfinals of Qatar 2022.
The albiceleste achieved the first score at 34 minutes through their captain Messi.
Later, an error in the start of the Australian team in the 11th minute of the second half was taken advantage of by Julián Álvarez.
Australia discounted with an own goal made by Enzo Fernández, that confused the goalkeeper Dibu Martínez.
Argentina, which began its journey in the World Cup with a painful defeat against Saudi Arabia, managed to rebuild its journey after beating Mexico and Poland in group C.
And a meeting with history is coming: Argentina will meet again in a final match of a World Cup in the Netherlands as happened in the 1978 final, in the 1998 quarterfinals and in the 2014 semifinal.
Messi appears
The first minutes were about Argentina in its fierce interest to decipher the approach of the Australians.
And Australia in not allowing them to decode their strategy.
By right. By left. In the center. Argentina was spinning, opening spaces, connecting passes, but the block of yellow shirts was impassable.
Messi was spinning. Enzo Rodrìguez, the hero of previous days, did not achieve depth.
Argentina celebrates its passage to the quarterfinals.
Australia suffocated, but did not attack.
As in the game against Poland, Damian “Dibu” Martínez, the Argentine goalkeeper, watched the game like another spectator.
The spectators yawned: It didn’t look like a round of 16 match, but rather a friendly played by substitutes.
And the only one who could do a trick and make the Australian spell disappear was a magician: Messi enters the area and in the 34th minute puts it on the right side of goalkeeper Mathew Ryan.
Goal. One zero and quarterfinals begin to be seen on the horizon.
The stadium lights up and begins a series of lavatory chants for ten.
Julián Álvarez marks the second for Argentina against Australia.
Argentina calmed down and the Australians, discovered, do not have many answers.
The second half begins as the first ended: bored.
Within five minutes a change occurs a little unusuall: Lionel Scaloni, the Argentine coach, takes out Papu Gómez, who was playing as a winger, for Lisandro Martínez, a central defender.
But then, in an Australian goal kick, in the eleventh minute, the Argentines decided to do what they hadn’t done during the whole game: push the start.
Rodrigo de Paul goes for Ryan, the goalkeeper, who is confused by the speed of the Atlético de Madrid midfielder and leaves the ball free, which is picked up by the young wonder of Manchester City Julián Álvarez, who kicks with difficulty on goal.
Goal. Two zero. Argentina to the quarterfinals.
But Argentina would not end without a scare: in the 30th minute of the second half, a shot by Craig Goodwin ended up deflected by Enzo Fernández and thus the ball entered the Argentine goal and became 2-1.
And when the clock marked the end of the match, in the last breath, Garang Kuol managed to stay alone in front of the goal and the miraculous left hand (always the left) of goalkeeper Martínez saved the game.
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