DOHA, 4 Dec 2022:
Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez staked Argentina to a 2-0 lead against Australia in Saturday’s World Cup 2022 knockout stage match here, but a fortunate deflection allowed the Socceroos to halve the deficit and the Albiceleste needed a big save from their goalkeeper to hang on for the win.
Australia, making only their second appearance in the round of 16, hoped to keep the game close enough that the outcome would turn on a single play or a penalty shootout.
While Argentina dominated possession, they didn’t manage a shot on target before Messi’s goal in the 35th minute – which came just as the Australians were daring to think they could make it to half-time without conceding.
Goal number 798 for club and country came in Messi’s 1,000th match as a professional and made him Argentina’s all-time leading scorer in the World Cup by one goal over the late Diego Maradona. Messi, 35, has said that Qatar 2022 – his fifth World Cup – will be his last.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or has scored 98 goals for Argentina, including nine in the World Cup, but the team’s best finish so far in the Messi era was runners-up to Germany in 2014.
The Netherlands defeated the US 3-1 and are still looking for their first World Cup title. The three-time runners-up will next face Argentina, who have lifted the trophy twice.
Dutch coach Louis van Gaal was content to see his men concede nearly 60% possession to the talented US, confident their greater experience would make the difference against the youngest side in the tournament.
Yet the Dutch player with the least international experience, 28-year-old goalkeeper Andries Noppert, was also crucial to the victory, making five saves.
On the attack, the Oranje were led by Inter Milan’s Denzel Dumfries, who assisted on the first two goals and scored the third.
The Americans started aggressively in front of nearly 45,000 spectators at Al Khalifa Stadium in Al Rayyan and Noppert was tested in the third minute by Chelsea man Christian Pulisic, the author of the goal against Iran that propelled the US into the round of 16.
The Dutch survived the initial onslaught and went ahead in the 10th minute on a goal by Memphis Depay that culminated a series of pinpoint passes reminiscent of the “total football” era of Johan Cruyff.
Noppert – playing in only his fourth international match – had to be sharp in the 43rd minute to turn aside a blast from Tim Weah, son of Liberian legend George Weah.
Seconds into first-half stoppage time, Dumfries got the ball to the onrushing Daley Blind, who scored his first international goal to extend the Dutch lead.
Quick reflexes allowed US keeper Matt Turner to avert a possible own goal by defender Walker Zimmerman and the Arsenal backup tipped a strike from Depay over the cross-bar just after the hour mark.
Turner produced a double-save in the 72nd minute, denying Teun Koopmeiners and Depay in rapid succession to keep the US hopes alive and the Americans halved the deficit in the 76th with a goal from sub Haji Wright, assisted by Pulisic.
But with the end of regulation nine minutes away, Dumfries converted a cross from Blind to make it 3-1.
– EFE