On the way to their first game in Lusail, the Brazil fans on the metro used the windows and doors as percussion while they sang: “Messi tchau, Messi tchau” to the music of Bella Ciao. Bye Messi. Bye Messi. They were revelling in the prospect of his last World Cup ending in the group stages after Argentina’s shock defeat to Saudi Arabia. Messi himself had described the atmosphere in the dressing room in morbid terms. He said his team-mates were “dead”. But Argentina are alive and Messi isn’t going anywhere.
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When he opened the scoring against Mexico, trapping a pass inside from Angel Di Maria before hitting an inch-perfect shot into the bottom corner, Lionel Scaloni’s assistant Pablo Aimar, the player Messi idolised as a boy growing up in Rosario, seemed to break down in tears in the dug-out. Aimar has, in the past, claimed that when Messi plays his teams don’t need to get lucky because he is fortune personified, the fortune of Argentina. “We all believe that when he plays” whether it’s with Argentina, Barcelona or PSG, they are “going to win”, Aimar said.
But if the result was never in any doubt, why the anguish in the dug-out, why the tears and the torment? The end of Argentina’s 36-game unbeaten run had made a nation insecure. It was a reminder that Messi isn’t always enough. He is human, a terrestrial. He’s 35 and didn’t look fit earlier in the week. “The other day there was talk about my ankle,” Messi said, “and there was nothing wrong with it.” He felt the speculation tempted fate because “in the last minute” against Saudi Arabia “I twisted it”. As if Argentina’s situation wasn’t already desperate enough after that 2-1 defeat, the knowledge Messi had to manage his ankle must have been a source of disquiet, another blow on top of those goals from Saleh Al-Shehri and Salem Al-Dawsari. Messi himself admitted: “The days were very long,” after the Saudi loss. “That’s how it felt.”
Aimar and his fellow Argentines would be forgiven for fearing the worst. “The first half was not good,” Scaloni said. “Mexico played five at the back with four midfielders and no striker.” The five changes he made did not dramatically improve the team. Rodrigo De Paul will be fortunate to keep his place if he keeps giving the ball away like he did in Argentina’s first two games. It was a jittery performance. Messi struggled to get into the game. His first chance took half an hour to come and even then it was a hit-and-hope cross from Marcos Acuna, swinging away from goal which Messi, all 5ft 5in of him, headed over.
A free kick in a promising position got the crowd chanting “Messi, Messi, Messi!” He had after all curled a couple in against Chile and Ecuador in Argentina’s Copa America winning campaign. But this time Messi couldn’t trouble Guillermo Ochoa in the Mexico goal, his effort floating into the stands. An hour passed and the game seemed to be drifting to another Qatar 2022 speciality — the 0-0 — then Messi emerged free on the edge of the box and scored. It was his eighth goal at the World Cup, the same number as Diego Maradona, in the exact same number of games (21), and it came a day after the anniversary of his death. Maradona was very much on people’s minds this week — Lautaro Martinez and Scaloni had promised to dedicate a win to him, fans gathered in the Souq Waqif to celebrate his memory — but on Saturday night it was impossible to think about anyone other than Messi.
Afterwards, Scaloni broke down Argentina’s tactical approach. He instructed his team to be more aggressive in the second half. They pushed up, were more compact and began to find each other better. Julian Alvarez and Enzo Fernandez brought freshness off the bench. But Scaloni was honest about how the win came about. “I don’t think it was down to these finer details, it was because we have Leo,” he insisted. Messi’s team-mates agreed. Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martinez, the Argentina goalkeeper, said: “Mexico gave us a tough match but having El Diez (the No 10) always makes things easier.” The relief was palpable. Messi argued his goal “changed the game”, an obvious statement yet it did so much more than give Argentina the lead. The goal transformed the mood, generating positivity, the perfect environment for Scaloni’s subs to come on and express themselves. “We needed this result,” Messi said. “We needed this euphoria.”
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Messi was its creator. Even in this more minimalist version of himself, he still produces magic moments. He was the one who gave the ball to Enzo Fernandez to score Argentina’s second of the night, the clincher in the Albiceleste’s first win of the tournament. “I always dreamed of playing with this jersey when I was a kid, and today my dream of scoring a goal in a World Cup came true,” the Benfica midfielder said.
An assist? You could barely call Messi’s pass that, so good was Fernandez’s finish. But Messi enabled it by bringing “joy” and “peace of mind” to his team-mates and the fans in the stands. That’s why Aimar broke down. He wasn’t alone in doing so, either. “I got a message from my brother,” Scaloni said. “He had been watching the game and was crying.” In Scaloni’s opinion, Argentina could use more emotional balance. But shortly after full time even he was spotted in the dressing room singing raucously with his players about winning the tercera — Argentina’s third World Cup.
(Top photo: Markus Gilliar – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
