Argentina v Switzerland
Brazil 2014 | Last 16
Arena de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo
Attendance: 63,255
Going into the game
One player dominated the build-up to this last-16 showdown, with Lionel Messi having lit up the tournament with a series of spellbinding group-stage displays. ‘The Atomic Flea’ had scored four sumptuous goals as Argentina recorded three wins from three matches. Such was his influence, there had been some talk that La Albiceleste had become over-reliant on their masterful No10.
“Whenever there is a player like Messi, there’s a dependence,” coach Alejendaro Sabello admitted. “We are trying to improve but dependence always exists. We have to try to take the pressure off him between all of us because we are a team.”
Messi and Co were primed to face a Switzerland side under the leadership of revered German Ottmar Hitzfeld. They had finished second in their group behind France.
When asked, on the eve of the game, how his team would stop Argentina’s star man, Hitzfeld said: “I think any defence will face problems when facing Messi, and problems are there to be solved. I trust my defence. How to stop Messi? We will show you tomorrow how we do it.”
The game
Across 120 minutes of compelling action in Sao Paulo, a well-organised and obdurate Switzerland side frustrated Argentina. The mesmerising Messi, however, still provided regular flashes of his genius. A drop of the shoulder saw him escape between Swiss duo Valon Behrami and Ricardo Rodriguez in one devastating movement. Later in the game, substitute Gelson Fernandes squared Messi up but was left bamboozled when the Argentinian flicked the ball over the midfielder’s right boot, changed direction in an instant and sprinted clear.
Messi also came close to breaking the deadlock. One sweetly-struck long-range effort went fractions over the bar, before his fizzing low drive forced goalkeeper Diego Benaglio into a fine save.
Inevitably, he made a decisive contribution towards the tie’s defining moment. With the game deep into extra time and penalties looming, Messi seized possession midway inside the Swiss half and darted forward to leave Gokhan Inler and Fabian Schar trailing in his wake. He then fed Angel Di Maria with a perfectly-weighted pass, which allowed the winger to apply a first-time finish beyond Benaglio. The strike proved to be the match-winner as Argentina marched on to the quarter-finals.
Quotes
“We know Messi can decide a match in one second. He has that quality.”
Ottmar Hitzfeld
“There was this pass from the midfield to Messi and he was in a very advantageous position. A player like him getting the ball in an advantageous position can cause a lot of harm. And there you go, he found Di Maria. The longer the game went on, the more [Messi] was able to run at them.”
Alejandro Sabella
“At times I was nervous because we couldn’t score and any mistake could have left us out of the World Cup. We didn’t want the penalties. At the end we had luck on our side.”
Lionel Messi
