Argentina – Croatia 3:0, CUT: Messi shone, Álvarez fired. Argentina is in the final

The South Americans won their fifth semi-final at the world championship and will play for gold for the sixth time. They managed to win it in 1978 and 1986. In Sunday’s final in Qatar, they will challenge either France or Morocco, the defending champions. Their match against each other is scheduled for Wednesday from 20:00 CET.

In Saturday’s duel for third place, Croatia will aim for its third medal from the World Cup. In addition to the four-year-old silver, they won bronze in 1998.

The match was played with a new ball, specially created only for the semi-finals and finals. The teams started cautiously, the first shot on goal was born only in the 25th minute. However, Croatian goalkeeper Livakovič blocked Fernández’s long-range shot.

Nine minutes later, the reigning South American champions took the lead. A running Livakovič brought down Álvarez and referee Orsato awarded a penalty kick. Traditional executor Messi made no mistake with a shot under the crossbar and converted the third of four penalties in the tournament (not including the quarter-final shootout).

With his fifth goal, he overtook his teammate from Paris St. Germain of France Mbappé. At the same time, he celebrated his 25th start at the World Cup in style, equaling the previous record of the German Matthäus.

In the 39th minute, the Argentines increased the score. Álvarez took over the ball on the halfway line and with the help of two rebounds from defending opponents he got to the goal, where he beat Livakovič.

At the end of the half, the Croatian goalkeeper made a timely save to save his team from conceding a third goal after Mac Allister’s header.

After almost an hour of play, Messi did not succeed, but in the 69th minute, mainly thanks to him, Argentina rejoiced again. From the sideline to the penalty area, the defender Gvardiol could not take the ball from him and the excellent Messi presented it to Álvarez, who hit the open goal from an ideal position.

Although the Croatians held the ball more, they did not significantly threaten goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez. On the contrary, they almost conceded again in the 83rd minute, but Mac Allister headed wide.

The Argentinians avenged the equally heavy defeat of the Croatians from the previous championship, they beat today’s opponent at the World Cup in 1998 as well (1:0). Since the opening surprise loss to Saudi Arabia, the South Americans have won their fifth game in a row in Qatar.