Wednesday, December 14, 2022 – 6:22 PM
From / Ahmed Zahran ..
ABU DHABI, 14th December / WAM / With the great 3-0 victory over the Croatian national football team and its qualification to the final match of the 2022 World Cup, the Argentine national team maintained its record of success and the “full mark” in the semi-finals of the World Cup tournaments.
Yesterday’s match once morest the Croatian national team was the fifth time that the Argentine national team competed in the semi-finals of the World Cup tournaments, and the team succeeded in passing this round for the fifth time with a complete success rate to reach the final match of the tournament, in which the winner of the second match meets the semi-finals, which It brings together the Moroccan and French national teams, the defending champion.
Yesterday, the match witnessed more than one Argentine record, whether it was for the team itself, its famous star, Lionel Messi, or the rest of the players.
When the team plays the final match of the championship, it is expected that some of these numbers will be extended.
During yesterday’s match, the Argentine national team raised its score in the current edition to 12 goals in the current edition, making it the largest score for the team in any version of the tournament since it scored 14 goals led by the late legend Diego Maradona in 1986, to crown the team at the time with its second world title.
And if the Argentine national team succeeds in scoring two goals during the final match, it will equalize this balance and may succeed in crowning its third title.
Messi equaled a record that had stood for many years, which is the number of matches played by any player in the history of his participation in the World Cup, as Messi played his 25th match in the World Cup equally with German legend Lothar Matthaus.
Messi can be alone with the record if he participates with his country in the final match.
Messi also equalized with the end of yesterday’s match, a World Cup record registered in his name personally, equally with former Dutch star Wesley Sneijder, where he won the best player of the match award for the fourth time in the current tournament matches, equaling this record for the number of times any player wins this title in one copy. .
Schneider achieved this in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and Messi equalized it in 2014 in Brazil, before Messi repeated this in the current version, noting that he might be the only one with the record if he achieved the same award in the final match of the tournament.
Messi holds the record for the number of times winning the best player of the match award throughout the history of participation in the World Cup, with 10 times, including 4 times in 2014 and the same in the current version, compared to once in each of 2010 and 2018.
The match witnessed a new goal for Messi and two goals for his colleague Julian Alvarez, raising Messi to 5 goals in the tournament and sharing the top scorer list with Frenchman Kylian Mbappe, while Alvarez shares second place in the list with the other Frenchman Olivier Giroud with 4 goals each, which means the ignition of the struggle for the title of top scorer. Championship, which may be decided in the final match of the tournament.
It seems difficult for Messi to compete for the title of the historical top scorer of the World Cup, which is the title that German Miroslav Klose owns with 16 goals, but the Argentine star feat, who has scored 11 goals so far, can equalize the balance of legend Pele if he scores one goal in the final knowing that Pele occupies Fifth place in the list of top scorers throughout the history of the World Cup, with 12 goals.
Mustafa Badr Al-Din / Ahmed Zahran
