Lionel Messi opens the scoring and Julian Alvarez steals the show as Argentina reaches its sixth World Cup final after shutting out Croatia. FIFAWorldCup
LUSAIL, Qatar – The most clinical of smash-and-grabs kept Lionel Messi on track for his date with destiny and broke Croatian hearts as Argentina reached Sunday’s World Cup final with a 3-0 victory at the Lusail Stadium.
“Throughout the World Cup it has been incredible what we have experienced. We are going to play the final which is what we wanted,” said Messi, voted the world’s best player a record seven times. Messi coolly put away the spot kick in the 34th minute, after Alvarez was brought down by keeper Dominik Livakovic, to become his country’s all-time World Cup top scorer with 11 goals.
“I’ve been enjoying this for a long time, since we arrived at this World Cup,” the 35-year-old Messi said. “We asked people to trust us because we know who we are. It’s crazy, we did it… we’re going to play another final. Once again, Argentina are in a World Cup final.” “We had good control but we were not specific in our actions,” said Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic. “We tried to come back, they had a counter-attack and we conceded the second and we were done by that point.”
Messi, who drew level with Germany’s Lothar Matthaeus as joint record holder for most World Cup appearances with his 25th game, fired past Livakovic after Croatia’s assistant coach Mario Mandzukic was sent off for dissent.
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