He took an entire team on his shoulders, he also installed his thousands of supporters present in Qatar and even an entire country, Argentina, which dreams of a third world title: captain, scorer, leader and a bit of a magician , Lionel Messi is the Albiceleste’s guide to the 2022 World Cup.
The scene was repeated against Mexico, Poland and Australia. Argentina pushes and gets a corner kick. Messi walks up to shoot him and slowly looks up at the sky blue and white supporters. And they answer “Messi! Messi! bowing in reverence.
The collective fellowship and mutual adoration between the ” hinchas Argentines and the selection, Messi in the lead, are all the more striking as the admirers of the Albiceleste are by far the most numerous and the most noisy of the World Cup among the countries which remain in the race.
“With the fans, it was an incredible feeling. To be able to share all this joy with them, with so many people who have made the effort to come… All the people of Argentina wanted to be here,” Messi said after his team qualified for a fiery quarter-final, which will be held Friday against the Netherlands.
“We wanted to get together on the field again with the fans, because the way they experience it is incredible. They transmit this passion, this energy to us,” he added.
He, for his part, is responsible for transmitting all the rest, the technical quality, the goals and the leadership that allow Argentina to believe in their chances of a third crown, after those of 1978 and 1986, the chief -work of Maradona.
Against Australia, in the round of 16 (2-1), Messi opened the scoring, as he had already done in the group stage against Saudi Arabia (1-2 defeat) and Mexico (2-0), in a terribly tense match.
An ace in the sleeve
Above all, in each of the four games played by Argentina, he dictated the rhythm, indicated the direction to follow, weighed on the game, guided the most inexperienced and the most nervous. And it has often been truly dazzling in quality and accuracy.
You should have seen the absolutely amazed gaze of Graham Arnold, the coach of Australia, when he was asked to judge Messi’s performance against the “Socceroos”: “He is remarkable, incredible”, murmured the one who remembered facing Diego Maradona when he was still a player.
In the other South American giant, Brazil, possible opponent of the Albiceleste in the semi-finals, we also obviously noted the weight of the noh 10.
“What can we say about Messi? Right now, Messi is Argentina. Everything goes through him, everything goes through his feet. He is in exceptional form, ”said Dani Alves, right-back of the Seleçao and former team-mate of “Leo” in Barcelona.
Everything goes through the captain’s feet so much that against Australia, he also took it upon himself, in the middle of the match, to try to reinflate the capital of confidence of Lautaro Martínez, who entered this World Cup on the wrong foot.
Three times, Messi chewed the job by serving him magnificent goal balls, which the Inter Milan striker failed to achieve. “Lautaro lives for the goal. He will play other games and he will score some,” Doctor Messi diagnosed after the game.
On the same evening, full-back Nahuel Molina explained that having Messi in his team was like being a magician who “always has an ace up his sleeve”, echoing the message of encouragement and hope that the Argentine federation regularly on Twitter after a new goal from Messi: “Let the magic continue, captain! »