Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
Although Acuña won't be able to play in this match, Argentina will once again go back to a four-guard, with Tagliafico at left back and four midfielders, Paredes, De Paul, Enzo Fernandez and MacAllister, while Messi and Álvarez will still play up front.
(Both teams start)
Argentina immediately pressed their midfield, and they used a high press to make it difficult for Croecia to hold the ball well from midfield to backfield. Both sides had a clear goal, Argentina wanted to let Messi play, while Croecia of course wanted to let Modric go forward to participate in the attack, but the problem is relatively simple for Argentina, Croecia is technically more rugged, and if pressed, Modric would go back to help the backline. In previous matches, if they were pressured, Modric would drop back to assist the back line. Argentina's goal in pressing forward is to force Croesia's powerful three midfielders, especially Modric, to drop back.
This strategy was quite successful, it didn't take long for Croecia's backfield to pass the ball, Modric soon had to drop back to assist the backfield, but that suited Argentina, they had four midfielders in the center of the field pushing forward, which forced Kovacic and Brozovic to be ineffective, and after Modric dropped back, there was no one to pick up the ball, as the midfielders were too far back to pick up the ball, and there was no one to pick up the ball from the front three. As the midfielders were too deep in the middle of the field, no one was there to receive the ball, and the Croats were cut off from the front three, but they didn't do a good job of pulling back, and Croats couldn't get the ball on the flanks without someone to distribute the ball to them from the front after Modric's retreat.
Moreover, Argentina's midfield activity is very high, even if the Croesia winger pulls back to get the ball, there is only a very short period of time to protect the ball, to the side of the ball is mostly alone, and then Argentina will drop the ball if they come up to force the ball with a high activity level, such a period of time is not enough for Modric to run from the back field to the front field to distribute the ball, and the Croesia's attack is equal to be dismantled.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
Argentina took the lead in the 34th minute of the game. On the counterattack, Argentina prepared a forward pass on the center line, but the Croesia defense was obviously in disarray at this point. Lovren was supposed to go forward to create an offside, but he retreated backward, which led to the success of Alvarez's counter-offside to take the ball into the penalty box, and goalkeeper Livakovic was forced to commit a foul resulting in a 12-yard kick, which was punished by Messi's penalty kick.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
It was only 5 minutes later, at 39:00, a Crocia corner kick was broken up by Argentina, who didn't hesitate to pass the ball directly to Alvarez for a fast attack. At this point, both Crocia center backs were already in front of the corner kick, leaving only Juranovic and Borna Sosa at the back, and Alvarez kept the ball and kept going forward, with Molina also helping out with a diagonal run. Alvarez drew the attention of the defenders, and then Alvarez himself dashed into the penalty area and prepared to shoot. Juranovic blocked the ball, but it bounced back to Alvarez's feet, and BornaSosa couldn't change her position in time to clear the ball, and Alvarez went forward to pick up the ball and scored the goal.
The game was already over in the first half, as the Croesia defense was in disarray under Argentine pressure, resulting in the two goals conceded. At the start of the second half, Croesia replaced Borna Sosa and Pasalic, who were not performing well, with Orsic and Vlasic in an attempt to revitalize the team, and in the 50th minute, they removed Brozovic and replaced him with Petkovic. In the 50th minute, Brozovic was removed and replaced by Petkovic, but in the opposite direction, Paredes was replaced by Lisandro Martinez to strengthen the defense with a five-man backline. As a result, although Croesus had obvious pressing and passing in the second half, the center of the field was unable to break through the Argentine defense, and the ball was cleared all the time.
In the 69th minute Messi took the ball on the right side of the field and carried it all the way forward, Gvardiol also pestered him all the way into the penalty area, Messi was still on the right side of the field and waited for his teammates to come up before he started to turn around and burst into the end line, finally he passed a diagonal 45 degree pass, Alvarez followed him to the 6-yard box and easily broke through the goal, Gvardiol followed him from beginning to end but still couldn't stop him from passing the ball to the end. Gvardiol was on Messi from start to finish but still couldn't stop his final pass, Messi's form has been hard to resist.
Photo credit: Courtesy of Sports Vision
After 3-0, Croesusia basically gave up the game and finally replaced Modric in the 81st minute, the game ended with Argentina beating Croesusia 3-0.
Argentina in this World Cup, from the beginning to lose to Saudi Arabia, and then to fight with Mexico, at that time many of their players did not play out of shape, Lautaro Martinez could not score goals and finally went to the bench, DiMaria and PapuGomez also did not play well, Argentina is desperately trying to fix the problem all the way to the round of sixteen and gradually determine MacAllister, Enzo Fernandez, DePaul three fixed midfield, Messi and Alvarez in the front line to control the pace of the midfield up, and then in the four backs and five backs to change between the process of relying on Molina and Acuña, and then rely on Messi's performance after performance to break the opponent's goal, to avoid a barrel of defense. Now the Argentina's formation and starters have finally taken shape to face the winner of France and Morocco in the final, and I am afraid that Messi is still the most important and the only key for Argentina to win in this final.
World Cup Report
World Cup First Round Report - England 6-2 Iran, Netherlands 2-0 Senegal
World Cup First Round - Argentina 1-2 Saudi Arabia
World Cup First Round Report - Brazil 2-0 Serbia
World Cup Second Round Report - Argentina 2-0 Mexico
World Cup Second Round Report - Spain 1-1 Germany
World Cup Final Round Report - England 3-0 Wales
World Cup Final Round - Argentina 2-0 Poland
World Cup Round of 16 - Netherlands 3-1 USA - Total Control
World Cup Round of 16-Argentina 2-1 Australia-
Lionel Messi (1987-), Argentine footballer
saccharine shot
