In Football, it takes a ‘˜special’ effort to break the opposition defence and none other than Lionel Messi to display it as the Argentine scored a superb goal in stoppage time to give his team a 1-0 victory over Iran on Saturday.
In Football, it takes a ‘special’ effort to break the opposition defence and none other than Lionel Messi to display it as the Argentine scored a superb goal in stoppage time to give his team a 1-0 victory over Iran on Saturday and secure his team’s place in the second round of the World Cup. Asian giants Iran had defended solidly throughout the game and almost took the match away from Messi and co. until the Barcelona forward’s goal. The Iranians should be proud of themselves when they created several chances in the second half but were punished for those missed chances when Messi picked up the ball about 20 yards and curled a shot into the left hand corner.
It was a moment of individual brilliance and showed why Messi has been voted ‘world player of the year’ for four times. Iran’s best chance to score a goal fell to midfielder Ashkan Dejagah who saw a powerful header from close range tipped just over the bar by Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero.
The victory sent the Argentina fans into frenzy mode. It almost looked like Argentina coach Alejandro Sabella’s decision to return to an attacking lineup would backfire. In Argentina’s 2-1 win against Bosnia-Herzegovina in the Group F opener, Sabella started with a more defensive 5-3-2 lineup with only two strikers.
He then changed to a 4-3-3 formation in the second half – a system favored by Messi – and he continued with that lineup at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte.
