Argentina’s captain is sure that nothing can ruin his country’s aim of winning the 2022 World Cup
Left: France’s Olivier Giroud and Antoine Griezmann celebrate after winning a World Cup semifinal match on Wednesday, Dec. 14, in Al Khor, Qatar. Right: Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez celebrate after scoring during a World Cup semifinal match with Croatia on Tuesday, Dec. 13, in Lusail, Qatar. Francisco Seco/AP; Martin Meissner/AP
By Rasheed Adewuyi
Argentina captain Lionel Messi says it is amazing that his country qualified for the 2022 FIFA World Cup final in Qatar after the embarrassing 2-1 defeat of Argentina by Saudi Arabia in their opening group match.
Argentina beat Croatia 3 –0 in the first semi-final on Tuesday and will take on France in Sunday’s epic final match of the 2022 FIFA World cup.
In a post-match interview with Futbol Picante on Fox Sports, Messi explained that many things were going on in his mind after the match against Saudi Arabia, adding that the victory against Poland gave him hope that Argentina could still qualify from the group.
” It was a shocker to me because we did all we could to break the Saudis, but they defended very well to stop us from getting at least a point to save us from a global embarrassment,” he said.
On how he feels about playing in the world cup final, Messi said he was delighted to be part of history and would be ready to give his best in ensuring that Argentina lifts the cup on Sunday.
He added: “The likes of Diego Maradona, Gabriel Batistuta, Mario Kempes, and other great players have written Argentina’s name in the history books, and we also aim to follow their footsteps.”
It would be recalled that Argentina lost their opening match against the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon at the FIFA World cup held in Italy in 1990 but lost to Germany in the final. Andre Bremen scored the only goal of the match through a penalty.
Frace beat Morocco 2-0 on Wednesday in the second semi-final. Morocco will take on Croatia in the third-place match on Saturday.
