One of the heroes of the World Cup final, Angel Di Maria, has claimed that Lionel Scaloni foresaw what was to come by lining him up on the left side against Jules Koundé and Ousmane Dembélé.
Without having played more than ten minutes before the final, Angel Di Maria was nevertheless one of the main architects of the third world title for Argentina. It was he who caused the first penalty and scored the second goal. Aligned on the left side, something unusual for the left-hander who likes to go inside. But before this final, he “didn’t even think about being a starter”
In an interview with TyC Sports, Angel Di Maria said: “Even I didn’t expect to play on the left in the final, nor to start. The team had played well, worked well, but (Lionel) Scaloni trusted me in the final, he decided to field me as a starter.“When discovering the composition for the final, he did not hide his surprise: “I felt very good in training. When I saw I was on the left, I thought he was wrong, but then he explained to me that we were going to hurt them, that I was going to have fun and that we were going to do the difference because it was their weak point.»
