Dalic, DT of Croatia, beat the match with the Argentine National Team: "Messi doesn't run much, he waits and receives"

The Balkan coach praised La Pulga but left a striking appreciation of his game.

In times when Croatia appears on the horizon of the Argentine National Team as the last hurdle to get into the final of the World Cup Qatar 2022spoke the Balkan coach, Zlatko Dalic, focusing especially on his plan to control Lionel Messi. And, praise aside, he left a description of the star’s game, to say the least striking.

“We celebrated the night before, from today we begin to study Argentina. We expect a difficult and motivated opponent again. They have an army of fans here in Qatar”, he highlighted first at a press conference. And then he dedicated himself fully to the PSG star.

“We will dedicate special attention to the question of how to stop Messi. Personal branding doesn’t work, we didn’t do it last time and we won’t do it now either. Need cover the passes to him and reduce the spaces“, traced, and then came his most striking appreciation:”He doesn’t run much, he doesn’t run after the ball either.. Wait and receive with all the strength and energy. We need to be very vigilant about that.”

Likewise, in other interviews, Dalic underlined the level of the Rosario player: “Messi He is the best player in the world in the last 10 years. He is a player with tremendous quality. We have to prepare very well to face it. It is not necessary to give him many spaces because he is very motivated. This will probably be his last World Cup and maybe his last chance to win a World Cup with Argentina.“, he considered. And he added: “Surely the last defeat in Russia will also have him motivated, so we hope to face a very good version of Argentina.”

Dalic, DT of Croatia, on Messi

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Dalic, DT of Croatia, on Messi

Luka Modric also spoke about Messi before Croatia faces the Argentine National Team

“I want to play another semifinal against a big team, that’s what I want, not just against one player. Of course Leo (Messi) is very big, he is their best player, and We are going to have a lot of difficulties to stop it, but we are prepared and we are going to give it our all. I hope it will be enough to be in the final”, Modric declared in an interview with Televisión Española.