The coach highlighted the classification and character of the team. He said that Messi was touched by what Van Gaal had said and that he showed that “he is the best of all time”.
They invited him to praise himself at the press conference and he preferred to keep his low profile, Lionel Scaloni. And there were reasons for a self-promotion that the coach did not want to get on. The bet with Nahuel Molina ahead was a success, reflected in the first goal. and above all, his steady hand at two key moments was important: the start of extra time and the penalty shootout. When the logical thing would have been for the team to feel the blow of the dying tie, the answer was to go out and attack in extra time. Later, when it was time for penalties, the reassuring hand of the coach was also noticed.
“In the last minutes they threw a lot of balls but in the extra time they settled for 2-2. We knew that playing our football the game was going to change again and we had chances to win it in the extra time, it was not like that, but they did We told the players that the game was for us, beyond the fatality of the last minute,” he explained.
As for penalties, he counted. “It was similar to what happened in Colombia in the Copa América, very similar. We knew who the kickers were going to be, we even had one left over, with the desire they had to kick. Imagine an instance like that, you have to point out and here I had plenty of players That’s good and that gives you confidence, it’s something positive for the group that they see that everyone wants to kick. And we knew that Emiliano (Martínez), as he had done against Colombia, could save someone, so it was a bit of repeating that and giving him confidence in the players, we only had to decide the order, but we had plenty of performers”.
Regarding the virtues of his team, he pointed out that “Argentina has a spirit of knowing how to face the situation at all times. We did not deserve to go to penalties, but the team continued to show their faces, in a very difficult game. They proposed a somewhat strange second half … But hey, this team has pride, youth, a lot of desire, essential to not give up anything,” he said.
The youngest coach in the World Cup, at 44 years old, was asked about the strange climate that was experienced with the rival coaching staff, led by Louis van Gaal, the oldest coach in the tournament, at 71 years old. Especially because of Messi’s reactions. On this subject, Scaloni reserved an irony towards his colleague. “The match was good for that, a quarterfinal match, these are things that happen on the field and remain there. But we did not play with one less when we didn’t have the ball… I think Leo felt a bit touched and showed who is the best of all time, we are happy to have him”.
He did not want to qualify Antonio Mateu Lahoz. “The subject of the referee is over, I know him, I have a good relationship. We left it there,” he said, escaping the controversy of the yellow cards and the 11 minutes of added time.
Returning to the team, they asked him if he had shown a sign of character and the answer was the least prepared: “How many tests of character did we give in this World Cup? He got up after losing his debut against Arabia, he played a very difficult game with Mexico. .. This team shows the facets that the game requires at all times. It has the spirit to face each moment, that’s what this team knows. Today the most difficult moment was that of the last ten, twelve minutes, even had the I intended to make some change to continue attacking, but that’s how it happened, they’re decisions. They tied us, I don’t think it was deserved”.
With the semifinal in hand, they asked him if that was the initial objective, to reach the last days. “It is an objective, yes, to play all seven games, but now that we are dancing we have to keep dancing and we would like to take the next step, with all the respect that we are going to have against a great rival like Croatia. It will be a Nice game and we hope to live up to it”.
