Argentina scrapped their way to World Cup qualification, confirming their place in Russian Federation on the final match-day of South American qualification.
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Iceland goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson saves a penalty attempt by Argentina’s Lionel Messi during the group D match between Argentina and Iceland at the 2018 soccer World Cup in the Spartak Stadium in Moscow, Russia, Saturday, June 16, 2018. Those comparisons are not kind to Messi. Messi fired in a swinging pass, leading his teammate toward the goal.
Messi also had a few chances to convert on free kicks but came up empty on those opportunities as well.
On Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo came through for Portugal with a gorgeous set piece late in their World Cup opener.
“To evaluate and characterize his work is hard”, said Argentina coach Jorge Sampaoli.
As so often after a breathless first 45, the second half started slowly. The greatest professional footballers across the world have taken the gridiron in Russian Federation.
They’ll have a specific game plan for nullifying Argentina’s many, many talented attackers, and I imagine that will largely involve sitting back and allowing their opponents to dominate the ball.
80 MINS: With Iceland fans celebrating and Argentina’s getting anxious, he lets fly with a left foot curler inches wide of the post.
Criticism of the 30-year-old’s performance and penalty miss disguises the anonymity of Angel Di Maria and once again underlines the gulf in glass between the players Messi lines up alongside for club and country. The key will be to create space against a solid Icelandic defence.
“There’s a certain amount of frustration right now”, said Sampaoli.
Argentina look weaker then they did four years ago with relative unknowns Nicolas Tagliafico and Maximiliano Meza coming into the starting line-up. They were given multiple chances to clear and the ball would eventually fall to the feet of Augsburg’s Alfred Finnbogason who duly finished to send the Icelandic hordes in Russian Federation and at home insane.
It has to be said that Caballero was not helped by some slack defending, epitomised by Marcos Rojo’s kamikaze pass back to the Chelsea understudy. Argentina pressed for the victor in the second half, but in the end had to settle for a point.
Argentina improved after the break, particularly after Sampaoli brought on Ever Banega to replace Lucas Biglia.
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By the end there was yet another shape, Higuain added alongside Aguero in a 4-4-2 diamond. Messi and his men found it very hard to break through a very tight Iceland defense.
