Late in the first half of the game, it only took a stretch of five minutes for Argentina into scoring a double to cement their place in the finals of the World Cup. In the semifinals, Argentina defeated Croatia 3-0. And the star player from Argentina Lionel Messi has played his part yet one more time. It has been the fifth appearance of Argentina in the World Cup semifinals. It also has been the sixth time that Argentina has made a spot in the finals. 1986 was the last time Argentina won and since then they have been trying each time to bring the cup home one more time.
Being in the semifinal stage of the tournament, both Argentina and Croatia started the game very cautiously. Both these two teams played a very conservative game. It was evident to the fans that they both didn’t want to commit any early mistakes. But, as half an hour had passed into the game, Argentina took charge of the match and ensured that during the entire time they were in control over it. And from there on Argentina never had to look back.
Julian Alvarez sparked out during the thirty-second minute of the game going head to head with the goalkeeper of Croatia, Dominik Livakovic. In fact, Livakovic had brought down Alvarez by earning a penalty in his favor. It was during this moment of the game that Lionel Messi took charge of the game and showed the true potential that he always had. Being cool and calm as had always been, he successfully punched up the ball in the air toward the right and ensured to put it through the nets. Before Livakovic could react, Messi had already shown his magic taking the lead of 1-0 in favor of Argentina.
During the thirty-ninth minute of the game, Alvarez took charge of a counter-attack from the Croatian defense dribbling the ball across the midfield and saving it from the three walls of defense of Croatia. With a neat swift past Livakovic, he ensured to take the score to a 2-0 lead for Argentina by half-time. Throughout this entire tournament, Livakovic had been proving his mettle as one of the most efficient goalkeepers. But this time the lapse in the defense of Croatia and the attacking strategy of Argentina had made it too much for him to take any control.
This magical duo for Argentina, Alvarez, and Messi has once again created havoc against Croatia during the sixty-ninth minute of the game. Messi with a spectacular ball-handling capacity stole the ball away from the Croatian line of defense, Josko Gvardiol towards the right of the goalpost. Alverez then took over from there giving completion to the goal reaching the lead to 3-0. It seemed to be a bad day for the Croatian camp because out of the twelve shots Croatia had made for the goalpost, only two of them steered in the right direction. But Croatia was unable to create any damage. Argentina had scripted a comprehensive victory against Croatia and looking ahead toward the final on Sunday. The winner of the semifinals between Morocco and France shall join Argentina in the finals.