Argentina advanced to the World Cup final for the sixth time in their history, defeating Croatia 3-0 in the semifinals on Tuesday night at Lusail Stadium.
Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez scored two goals, with Lionel Messi adding another from a penalty kick.
Despite losing their first game to Saudi Arabia, the Albiceleste bounced back and regrouped as a stronger unit to book a spot in the final.
Speaking after the match, Lionel Messi emphasized that they will go for the title in the final game.
“I feel a lot of things. It’s crazy, everything we are experiencing,” said the Paris Saint Germain. “We said it at the beginning; trust us because we know who we are.”
” It’s really exciting. Seeing people and your family throughout the World Cup has been something special. We are going to go for it in the last game, which is what we wanted,” he said.
The former Barcelona talisman went on to say that his team was capable of recovering from difficult situations such as the loss to Saudi Arabia in the group stage and the Netherlands’ last-minute equalizer in the quarterfinals.
“We have been through tough situations, but also really good ones.” We have experienced something really spectacular. “I’m enjoying this one with all these people and with all the Argentines who are at home,” concluded Messi.
Argentina has reached the World Cup final for the sixth time, doing so in two of the last three editions to tie Italy and Brazil’s record—only Germany (8) has reached more finals in the competition than the aforementioned three.
On the same historic night, Messi broke Gabriel Batistuta’s record as Argentina’s all-time leading World Cup goal scorer with 11 goals.
Meanwhile, the winner of tonight’s semi-final match between France and Morocco will face Argentina in the final on Sunday.
