Lionel Messi’s Argentina kept their World Cup dreams alive and well
on Saturday evening, courtesy of what proved to be a surprisingly
nervy win over an underdog Australian outfit.
The Albiceleste and Socceroos went toe to toe a short time ago.
With confidence high in the camp on the back of a pair of successive
victories en route to table-topping status in Group C, Lionel Scaloni’s
Argentinians headed into proceedings as overwhelming favourites to
book their spot in the competition’s quarter-finals.
In turn, it did not come as a massive surprise when it was indeed the
South American champions who went on to open the scoring in Al-
Rayyan.
Latching onto a loose Nicolas Otamendi touch inside the Australian
penalty area, Lionel Messi bagged the first World Cup knockout goal
of his career, courtesy of a trademark left-footed finish into the far
corner:
Argentina then appeared to have put the clash to bed to bed as a
contest just shy of the hour mark, upon Julian Alvarez capitalising on
a needless error on the part of Australia no.1 Matt Ryan.
Australia, though, refused to lie down and accept defeat, and were
rewarded for their perseverance inside the closing quarter of an hour.
This came as substitute Craig Goodwin’s speculative long-range
effort took the mightiest of deflections, to nestle in the far corner of
Emi Martinez’s net.
From here, to their credit, Graham Arnold’s side pushed hard for an
equaliser, and may well have found it if not for, first, a moment of
world-class defending from Manchester United star Lisandro
Martinez, and later a last-gasp save on the part of namesake Emi
Martinez.
In the end, though, Argentina did enough to secure the win, in the
process booking their spot in the quarter-finals of the Qatar World
Cup.