'A COMMANDING performance' from Messi's Argentina leaves Modric's Croatia OUT of World Cup | ESPN FC 

Complete opposite of Southgate

@@JPzizouThis is funny, but true.

@Y U as an assistant manager

He is not underrated. He didnt had any experience before rather than in the juniors so people dont really know him but for coaching argentina. His work is different than from a club coach.

Yep

Their adamant to play side ways in attack using their technical ability to beat the first man always and then just continue vertically through teams is something I noticed and got very impressed by. It looks as though it is rehearsed by all 1 players. Credit to their manager too for breaking the template after Saudi Arabia and completely benching personnel that did not shine like Papu Gomez and an Unfit De maria for Alvarez, Molina and Co who took their chances in match day 2. Reminds me of failure of Southgate to continue playing Rashford who clearly was doing an Alvarez in matchday 2. I believe that was the difference.

@@classiccafe4128 agreed. His adjutments after the 1st game were very good. That 11 pretty much has been relied upon for the whole tournament. I was shocked that he wasnt starting lisandro and lautauro but you cant say much when the results are there. Having dybala, lautaro, di maria, gio rodriguez, palacios, lisandro, tagliafico as options off the bench is wild too.

Yep. Variants and versatility is the name of the game for Scaloni. He has a lot to choose from, even though many of those names didn't seem that big before the WC. It goes to show that a great team is not necessarily about having a lot of big stars, but more about the chemistry and the mystic. All those young players have been watching Messi for 15 years. They'll die running for him if they have to.

I love it!getting it asap!lovely colour

Counters win world cups it seems..france did the same in 2018...

3-5-2 or 4-3-2-1

How many penalties ?

@@razackchrist5096 not that many actually

8 assist *

@@razackchrist5096 3 penalties, same amount of penalties as Ronaldo with more than twice the amount of Goal Contributions.

the goat... true goat..

yes, right now they need time to compose maybe if isay something makes him more sad

yes... modric and croatia will beat france for 3 rd place... revenge

Meaningless match, the coach sure put second team

Modric will not play lol

If I am not writing Croatia are in the semis of the nations league .. so he got a chance to win something with Croatia before he retires 🙏

It would be amazing attack trio

I'm not sure if Di Maria will start the final, he might bring him on as a sub. He basically has 2 choices now 1) Go with the 3 at the back like against Holland to have Romero provide cover to Molina against Mbappe, and have Martinez provide cover to Acuna against Dembele, and stuff the midfield with Enzo, MacAllister and De Paul with Messi and Alvarez up top. but the problem with this is, it leaves Otamendi 1v1 against Giroud which would be a mismatch. A solution could be to have Romero play central and Otamendi to his right, but do you want rash Otamendi facing up against Mbappe? 2) He goes with the usual lopsided 4 - 4 - 2, with Di Maria back in the side providing width on the right and Acuna providing width on the left, but this has too many issues. For example, you are leaving Mbappe 1 v1 with Molina which is very dangerous especially since Di Maria is 35 and can't really track back because you are losing the entire purpose for having him there, and if you have a midfielder cover, they get outnumbered in the midfield and Greizmann will be dangerous. Plus the biggest danger will actually be Acuna v Dembele, since Acuna can't go up for fear of being exploited. I think he's more likely to go with a 3, and so Di Maria won't start, but then again, he could find other solutions

Aged well

The whole needs to get behind them.

You create own luck. Forcing mistake is a skill.

Wait, a penalty given in the 34 minute, when Argentina couldnt do nothing with the ball, a penalty which wasnt a penalty, just go and try to read rulles for that situation, the goalkeeper had both od his feet on the ground, if var was acitvated there would ne no penalty, but we allready are forgeting that penalty given to Argentina against poland haha, after that Argentina gain momentum and won because they were better

@@user-ln7xd8hu3f goalkeeper challenged for the ball and completely missed it. He collided when the ball was still in play and on target too. If you don't give that a penalty, i don't know what should be given (maybe the dive by Ronaldo is a clear penalty according to you). Are you guys really this dumb???

@@k1ngOFn00bs92 if obstruction isn’t a penalty than you’re delusional 😂😂😂

@@k1ngOFn00bs92 may be yesterday's penalty was controversial. but the one in Poland match is clearly a penalty Szczesny clearly missed the ball and hit Messi.. if you attempt for the ball but missed it and foul a player without your feet grounded.. then it's a clear penalty.

The penalty was a bad call. Alvarez had no chance, and the keeper pulled his hands and everything back in. Not a foul. The ball was gone. But all Argentina penalties were like this.

One time you beat someone without the reffs help, i will say it is deserved. But that still didn't happen thi WC.

@@EthanCruise It was 100% penalty, clearly you don't know the rules. The goalkeeper didn't play the ball at all, and obstructed the path of the forward from reaching the ball. Extended his leg as well. If this happened anywhere else in the field it would be a freekick. Go learn the rules.

@@veduardo4152 It was 100% penalty, clearly you don't know the rules. The goalkeeper didn't play the ball at all, and obstructed the path of the forward from reaching the ball. Extended his leg as well. If this happened anywhere else in the field it would be a freekick. Go learn the rules.

the second goal was 100% lucky, just as lucky if not more than our goal vs brazil, both times we tried to kick the ball away and both times it magically ends up at alvarez's feet. the pen i wont speak of, idc if it was clear or not, it was controversial and 50/50 thats all i know, but to say that 2nd goal wasnt lucky is just false. fair play to alvarez for still still running, but when that goal went in i knew we were never winning, everything was going against us and it wasnt meant to be unfortunately. fair play to argentina, the better team won, i was expecting their usual dirty and arrogant playstyle but thankfully we got none of that, so respect to them for that.

Wrong, the first game was just a slow start

What are you talking about? The dutch didn’t miss their penalties. Emilio Martinez saved them. He is brilliant at saving penalties.

@@GoLetItInGoBagItUp When the skipper shoot the penalty in a casual mode, mmmhhhh one wonders why. Is the pressure my friend. The second miss penalty was more a safe by the skipper, not the first one. Having a crowd against you in a crucial moment of the wc can be quite intimidating Vamos Argentina!

Seriously

Don't worry bro he's the most delusional "pundit" here on ESPN fc

@@yashpatil5465 absolutely

Went back to live under his stone in sauid

It was just banter, no need to take it seriously.

@@naazahs9045 he's also doing banter btw

4 in the goal or 2?

Interesting. Could you perhaps elaborate on the problems of the selection process?

Agreed. I said it before the WC they need to be good enough on the day that’s all that matters.

@@mehyeah2931 if the Argentina that play Italy 6 months ago turned up to the World Cup they would be unstoppable. So we know that the talent is there and the team game is there it’s just a matter of giving enough on the day.

Watch the video They talk about Alvarez like 5 minutes straight

Indeed

What feel ? This is sport. Win loss part of it.

I doubt France even reaching final tbh

Why benzema ?

@@Abdullah-vg1uc Benzema will be in the finals. If France wins, Benzema will have the WC cup + Ballon D'or + Golden boot IN ONE YEAR. He will be the only player who will achieve this.

@@domx-2737 he will never be credited for this world-cup since he didn't do anything for it

@@domx-2737 Florentino Pérez will set it up for another Madrid player anyways, don't worry about it much.

Dont be naive, he means argentina send croatia out of World Cup final . This 3rd placing play off just for fifa to earn more money and will be meaningless for croatia

@@KLHK1981 get lost, its not meaningless for us, 3rd place for the team we have, and us not even expecting to make it to the quater finals before this WC started, is a massive achievement for us. 2nd place and 2 3rd place finishes for a small nation like ours who didnt even exist 30 years ago is an accomplishment 95% of other nations would kill for. so we're very grateful and happy to even be here lol.

Sore losers....envy is showing..handle losing like a grown and stop making excuses

@@apan990 we still have to win that bronze, Morocco won't roll over and give it to us. and if our strikers perform the way they did the whole tournament, we're in for a loooong night on saturday

That was a normal assist?… boy Messi really lifted the bar so high 😂

You clearly don't know anything about football.

Plzz check ur tv or mobile or pc cause i am sure u dint watch d actual match or d assist 😂😂😂😂....

That’s simply false. Most pundits agree that the penalties where correctly given.

To lose you the finals you have to reach it first

🤣🤣🤣

Would rank a bit higher had he lost few world cup finals actually!So your comment is 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Messi still GOAT with no group stage exit unlike Ronaldo in 2014😂.

By that logic, I'm in the goat conversation because I've had zero losses in professional football

The only thing that is obvious is that Argentina started the tournament in the worst possible way and from them working hard and with full believe in themselves went through all the obstacles and knew how to win every final they played. That is the obvious thing, their fighting spirit, their supreme football skills, the unity in the group and finally the best crowd supporting unconditionally in the good and bad moments. No wonder the dutch at the penalties shoot out missed badly, the crowd played its game too Vamos Argentina!!!!!

The only thing that is obvious is that Argentina started the tournament in the worst possible way and from them working hard and with full believe in themselves went through all the obstacles and knew how to win every final they played. That is the obvious thing, their fighting spirit, their supreme football skills, the unity in the group and finally the best crowd supporting unconditionally in the good and bad moments. No wonder the dutch at the penalties shoot out missed badly, the crowd played its game too Vamos Argentina!!!!!

Croatia has shown throughout the tournament they can come back from deficits. So mentally and experience-wise they were ok after penalty. Their players didn't even made a big deal of it.

Also throughout the tourney Croatia had issues with shots on target, they prepared this match the same way against Brazil, expecting penalties. You should be happy that Argentina looks to score always.

How is Alvarez a poor finisher?

@@Abdullah-vg1uc Do you have a set of functioning eyes? Do you only watch soccer every four years?

What are you smoking bro?

@@RobertSmith-up9rz did you see the goal that he scored against Poland. Alvarez has been Argentinas most important player along side messi

@@Abdullah-vg1uc He is an average player who played in the Argentina league last year, I rest my case.

Better in what???maybe Instagram.

Ronaldo better at doing interviews we know

Yeah better at sitting on the bench

troll

🚽

Without Kante we cannot wish for this.

Mbappe needs to beat Hakimi and Bono first. 😁

😂

Find another sport

How was Messi assisting for the second goal lucky!?

All the drink you had is a penalty and you're never gonna get lucky.

They paid the ref...

@@ben-g314 I mean shoot, mans gotta eat too...