Argentina manage to stay in 2018 FIFA World Cup!! Predicted Teams, World Cup , Kick-off times ,Team News

                   Argentina World Cup permutation

                                        2018 FIFA World Cup

Mostly because they wanted to. A bit because Nigeria were complacent. You saw Messi sliding into tackles towards the end. If you can inspire Messi to do that, you know you’re doing things right as a team. It was passion personified. Mascherano, for me, is the real hero of the night. I’ll explain why later.

Tonight, Argentina didn’t win because of their offensive work. They won because of their defence. Literally everyone in that backline is short. Despite that, they won most headers. Tenacity, they had that. Banega was their best attacking player overall. But, when it comes to a particular individual moment, no one shone brighter than Messi. If it was pressure that hurt Nigeria, I credit Messi’s goal for it. The goalkeeper took the right decisions the entire game.

Coming to the penalty, Mascherano had his arm around a player. He did grip the player strongly. Although that is foolish, no one can say he pulled the player down. There was no visible tension in his forearm muscles. Nevertheless it was given and the Nigerians converted it coolly.

When I say Nigeria were complacent, it was only at the time Messi scored. If you are a central defender and you let Messi win a long ball despite being on the correct side, you really need to question your position in the NT. Also, what was the LB doing? When there is no other player pushing up, you better back up your CB. This was one important moment in the match. Despite how it might have looked, Nigeria weren’t complacent the rest of the night as evidenced by Argentina struggling to create chances. Argentina were very good at winning the ball back even if they weren’t very good at keeping it. When you have less than 40% possession and Argentina aren’t giving you many openings, you have to try to be efficient. There were two or three clear cut one-on-one chances. One was a fantastic save. These were also some important moments.

Nigeria were overwhelmed by the sheer guile and determination Argentina showed. Argentina were quite good in the first half actually.. That’s how you deal with pressure.

Either I or you simply cannot fathom how many things had to go right for Argentina to score that second goal. Mercado , who was easily the worst player tonight, delivered an inch perfect cross and the one who scored was a centre-back. Three Nigerian defenders followed Aguero who made an early run and left space for Rojo.

You could make a small argument about Argentina making things a little harder for themselves given how Higuain and Di Maria missed golden chances though.

Coming to Mascherano, like I said, he intercepted countless balls that could have resulted in a goal. He won headers despite being short. He made sure the midfield and defense didn’t lose their energy. He led by example and he led with his mouth. Hats off to the little chief, to the best player tonight.

So there you go, those were the defining moments and how Nigeria lost.