Lionel Messi has carried his side to the quarterfinals. Will his side carry him over the line now?
Lionel Messi with teammates celebrate after the match as Argentina progress to the quarter finals. (REUTERS/Pedro Nunes)
Argentina were on the verge of an early exit when Messi came up with a moment of magic in their group-stage game against Mexico, scoring a belter from outside the box. Against Poland and Australia – Messi scoring yet another hard-to-execute strike and typically making it look easy in the latter fixture – the 35-year-old was his side’s greatest creative outlet.
He would come deep to receive the ball, spray passes into open spaces in the wide areas, drop his shoulder to beat a few players and create space, and go on a few dizzying runs with the ball. Without him, however, Lionel Scaloni’s side have shown an alarmingly low level of creativity on the ball. So much so that, if the Dutch can effectively mark Messi out of the game, on the evidence of the past four games, it seems almost impossible that Argentina will be able to create any goal threat at all. [Read more]
