There was a time when a game against Barcelona meant that in the pre-match press conference the opposing team’s coach and captain or the player at the press conference had to answer one question—what is his plan to stop Lionel Messi?
In club football the question is now asked at the press conference of the teams playing against PSG.
In international football, the coach, captain and players of the teams playing against Argentina have to hear the question. Ahead of Qatar’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina, Croatia coach Zlatko Dalic, captain Luka Modric and other players are being asked if they have any plans to stop Messi.
Croatia forward Bruno Petkovic may have heard the question more than once. He once said in reply to this yesterday, ‘I have not made any specific plans yet. But not only Messi, we will stop Argentina.
How to stop Messi, after a while, ran to Petkovic again – the question of whether or not Messi is afraid! In response, Petkovic said, ‘I don’t think we need to be afraid of anyone. We have to focus on ourselves to play our best game.
At the World Cup in Qatar, Messi played a frightening game for the opposition. Scored from the penalty spot in a losing match against Saudi Arabia. Messi scored Argentina’s first goal in a 2–0 win over Mexico in their second match of the group stage. And he assisted on the goal scored by Enzo Fernandez. In the last match of the group stage against Poland, he played brilliantly despite not scoring in the 2-0 win.
Messi scored again in the last sixteen in a 2–1 win over Australia. Argentina won a tiebreaker 4–3 against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals. The match was tied at 2–2 after the scheduled 90 minutes, with no goals in extra time. Nahuel gave Molina a great pass to score one of Argentina’s two goals. He scored the second goal himself from the penalty.
Petkovic is not afraid of Messi’s performance. Because, he thinks that his team also has the ability to do good, ‘I will say, the secret of our good is unity. We play as a family. Petkovic wants to prevent Messi by playing as a team tomorrow.
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