Lionel Messi’s presence will give Argentina a ‘special advantage’ against Croatia in the World Cup semi-finals, defender Nicolas Tagliafico has claimed.
Argentina’s progress into Tuesday’s game was largely inspired by Messi, with the striker scoring four goals and assisting two of his nine.
“He’s always been like that,” said Lyon left-back Tagliafico.
“For us, he is our captain and our leader. He is the one who pushes us and motivates us.”
Messi will equal German great Lothar Matthaus’ record of 25 tournament appearances against the 2018 World Cup finalists at Lusail Stadium (19:00 GMT).
The 35-year-old also has other personal milestones in sight as he seeks to lead Argentina to a first triumph since 1986, when they won their fifth and likely last World Cup.
As well as being Argentina’s top scorer alongside Gabriel Batistuta in the competition with 10, Messi is one assist away from equaling Diego Maradona’s overall record of eight in World Cup finals.
“He’s the one who gives us that special advantage when we’re on the pitch,” Tagliafico added.
“We know we have Messi and that’s a great source of motivation and hope because we all know we can contribute and give our best. We’re really happy to have Messi as captain.
“With everyone’s support, we’re all working together to achieve our dreams, and it’s the greatest thing to do that with Messi by our side.”
Croatia wants to create more history
With a population of less than four million, Croatia head coach Zlatko Dalic says overtaking Argentina to reach a second consecutive World Cup final should be considered football’s greatest achievement from his country.
Croatia’s victory on Tuesday would also see them become the second team after Germany in 2014 to knock out Brazil and Argentina in the round of 16 of the same World Cup.
“The semi-final game against England in the last World Cup [in 2018] was the greatest game of all time, the game against Brazil comes second,” Dalic said.
“If we win tomorrow, it would make it the greatest historic game for Croatia ever.
“We are among the top four teams in the world – it’s an amazing achievement for Croatia. It’s good for two World Cups in a row to be in the top four national football teams.
“We want more. We are up against the great Argentina, a great team led by Lionel Messi. They are very motivated and under more pressure than Croatia at the moment.”
Scaloni defends the behavior
Meanwhile, Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni has defended his players against accusations of misconduct and lack of sportsmanship following their moody penalty shootout victory against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals.
The Argentine players mocked their Dutch opponents at the end of the match and Fifa subsequently opened disciplinary proceedings against both teams after the encounter saw a World Cup record 18 yellow cards issued.
“The previous match was played as we were supposed to play – for both teams. It’s football,” Scaloni said.
“In some games things can happen like this. There can be arguments but that’s it. That’s why there is a referee.
“We have to put an end to this idea of thinking that Argentina is behaving like this. We lost against Saudi Arabia and we didn’t say anything.
“We won the Copa America in Brazil and had the sportiest behavior with [Lionel] Messi, [Leandro] Paredes, Neymar, who were all sitting together in the Maracana tunnel [Stadium]. I’m really not convinced by this idea of unsportsmanlike behaviour.”
TEAM NEWS
Argentina will be without suspended Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel, while Tagliafico is expected to come on at left-back.
However, Angel di Maria and Rodrigo de Paul will be fit to play for Scaloni’s side.
Croatia boss Dalic has no injury or suspension concerns and will be able to choose from a fully fit squad after Borna Sosa and Mislav Orsic recovered from illness.
MATCH FACTS
- This is the third World Cup meeting between Argentina and Croatia, and the first of the Round of 16. Argentina won 1-0 in 1998, before Croatia won 3-0 at the 2018 tournament in Russia.
- Argentina are looking to reach the World Cup final for the sixth time, a figure surpassed only by Germany with eight. They have never been knocked out in the semi-finals before, most recently beating the Netherlands in 2014.
- Argentina have won just one of their last seven World Cup matches against European sides (D3, L3), beating Poland 2-0 in the group stage this year. However, two of those three draws ended in penalty shootout wins.
- Croatia were losing finalists in 2018 and could become the fourth European nation to reach back-to-back World Cup finals after Italy (1934, 1938), the Netherlands (1974, 1978) and Germany (1982, 1986) , 1990).
- Croatia have won all four penalty shootouts at the World Cup, knocking out Japan and Brazil in the round of 16 and quarter-finals respectively in 2022. The only nation to have won more penalty shootouts in the competition is Argentina, with five.
