December 14, 2022 (Jack87 News) – In the early morning of December 14 BK8, the first semi-final of the 2022 Qatar World Cup ended. Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 and easily advanced to the final round. The opponent will be the winner between France and Morocco.
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The match started a little slow until Argentina break through in the 34th minute of the game to take the lead. Enzo Fernandez made a pass from midfield to Alvarez who was knocked down by Livakovic while attempting to take a shot with his right foot from the middle of the penalty area. The referee took a penalty kick and showed Livakovic a yellow card. Afterwards, Messi pushed the ball vigorously with his left foot and sent the ball into the upper right corner of the goal, 1-0 in favor of Argentina against Croatia!
After just a couple of minutes, Alvarez got the ball in the backcourt and drove straight in. Although he was once intercepted in the penalty area, he stumbled to the left side of the small penalty area to complete the shot and scored a goal that expanded the lead to 2-0 Boda8. From then on, Argentina continue to attack aggressively. And in the 69th minute, Messi forced Gwadiol from the right side of the penalty area and made an inverted triangle cross. Alvarez scored again, this time with his right foot which concluded the game.
Tonight, in Argentina’s 3-0 victory over Croatia, Messi made great contributions for his nation. Also, Messi became the player who made the most goals in the history of the World Cup, reaching 20 (11 goals and 9 assists). In history, Messi scored 11 goals, surpassing the German star Thomas Muller to become the active player with the most goals in the World Cup, and surpassing the famous Batistuta to become the Argentine player with the most goals.
Tonight’s game between Argentina and Croatia is Messi’s 25th appearance in his World Cup career, tying the German star Matthaus and tied for the first place in history. As long as Messi plays in the World Cup final, he will break the record of Matthaus and occupy the position of the World Cup appearance leader where World Cup history record held by former Mexico captain Marquez.
Statistics show that Messi has scored 5 goals in this World Cup, tying the French genius Mbappe and ranking first in the scorer list. It should be pointed out that at the age of 35, Messi became the oldest player to score 5 goals in a single World Cup. Since he scored goals in the 1/8 finals, 1/4 finals and semi-finals, he became the first player in the history of Argentina to score in three different knockout rounds in a single tournament. At the same time, because these 5 goals are distributed in 5 games, Messi became the first player in the history of Argentina to score goals in 5 different games in a single competition. Counting the goals in tonight’s game, Messi’s total goals for the national team in 2022 will reach 16, and in only 13 games, he has set a new goal record for the natural year in the history of the Argentine team.
In tonight’s game, Messi sent 1 assist, which brought his natural year assists in 2022 to 30. This is also the third time in his career that he has assisted 30 times in a natural year. Statistics show that this is also Messi’s 8th assist in the World Cup, tying the record created by the famous Maradona and tied for the first in the history of the Argentine team.
After the game, Bet99 Messi was elected as the best player of the game awarded by FIFA. This is his fourth game in this competition where he was elected, setting a single World Cup record. At the same time, this is the 10th time that Messi has been elected as the best player in a single World Cup.
