A Lionel Messi penalty and a Julian Alvarez brace helped Argentina secure a comfortable 3-0 victory over Croatia in the semi-final encounter of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in Qatar at the Lusail Iconic Stadium on Wednesday, December 14. The victory propelled La Albiceleste into their sixth World Cup final in history where they will face either Morocco or France.
The front-two of Argentina ran rampant in a game that got off to a slow and cagey start. After the sides were done testing the waters, a long ball from the defensive third caught Croatian defenders napping as Alvarez reached it first, turned it away from the goalkeeper, who missed the ball and ended up taking the striker out.
The decision of awarding a penalty was dubious but ultimately given before Messi stepped up and smashed one past the Vatreni keeper Dominik Livakovic to score his 11th World Cup goal and also becoming the nation's outright top-scorer in the World Cup. Five minutes later, on the counter-attack, Alvarez established a two-goal cushion for the two-time winners.
The 22-year-old Manchester City striker sprinted with the ball for about 55 yards, dodging challenges from Croatian full-backs Josip Juranovic and Borna Sosa, before nestling the ball into the back of the net, just six minutes before the half-time whistle.
Zlatko Dalic made a couple of attacking substitutions at half-time in hopes of reinstating parity. But the hopes were laid to rest in the 69th minute, when Alvarez drove the final nail in the coffin by scoring his second and his side's third of the evening.
Alvarez only had to roll the ball into an empty net as all the hard work had come from Messi down the right flank. The 35-year-old danced and dribbled past defender Josko Gvardiol. Twisting and turning, Messi left the 20-year-old in the dust before putting it on a silver platter for Alvarez, who made no mistake in slotting it in.
A distraught Luka Modric was withdrawn in the 81st minute of the game and replaced by Lovro Majer, ending his World Cup voyage. The 37-year-old is likely to feature in the third-place playoff but will still be upset that he could not wrap his hands around the coveted World Cup trophy in his final attempt.
Argentina reached the final of the 2014 World Cup before they were defeated by Germany. La Albiceleste will be hoping not to replicate that outcome this time around. Success would see the Argentinians win their third title after 1978 and 1986.
It would also turn out to be the perfect farewell trophy for Messi, who has now drawn level with Kylian Mbappe in the race for the Golden Boot of the FIFA World Cup 2022.
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