Marcos Rojo carries Lionel Messi with late winner.
Goal of Messi
Last night, Argentina creeped its way to the Round of 16 with a late victory over a resistent Nigeria. Lionel Messi opened the scoring in the 14th minute with a perfectly executed right-footed shot after Ever Banega found the Argentinian superstar with an extraordinary long-distance pass. Messi’s goal hit the century mark, as it was the 2018 World Cup’s 100th goal.
Nobody really expected to take so long for Messi to get his name on the scoresheet. Opportunities for Barcelona’s star man have been scarce in what has thus far been a poor World Cup campaign for the Argentinians. Jorge Sampaoli’s men have struggled to find their rhythm, drawing with Iceland and losing to Croatia before narrowly escaping elimination against Nigeria. How did they escape? Ask Marcos Rojo.
Goal of Rojo
With the match tied at 1-1, the volume on Argentina’s desperation mode was turned up to maximum. Tactics were ignored, positioning wasn’t important. The only thing that mattered was finding a way to score. In the 85th minute, Manchester United’s defender Marcos Rojo found himself wandering inside Nigeria’s penalty box and did what the team’s strikers couldn’t do all tournament long. Gabriel Mercado sent a cross, Rojo created separation from the Nigerian defender and scored on a one touch shot, Higuain and Aguero can envy. Messi climbed on top of Rojo and rode him like a horse until the rest of Argentina’s players joined the celebratory pile. It was Rojo’s third goal for the national selection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdNmUmqLxzQ
After the game, Rojo praised his captain for a half-time speech that boosted his confidence:
“Messi came up to us and told us to calm down and not be stressed,”
“We felt nervous and that message helped us a lot and gave me personally a huge confidence boost.”
If Argentina manages to recover from their early woes and somehow reach the final, Rojo will be seen as the saviour of a team that was doomed to fail with five minutes left to play.
Next up for La Albiceleste is a knockout round clash with France on Saturday, June 30 at 16:00.