Croatian manager, Zlatko Dalic, who played a major role in decimating Argentina in the Fifa World Cup 2018 group stage, has revealed the strategy employed by him to stop Lionel Messi. Argentina, initially favourites to lift the 2018 World Cup, suffered a humiliating 3-0 defeat against Croatia which left them almost on the verge of elimination.
While acknowledging the fact the fact that Lionel Messi is the best player in the world, Dalic explained how it was difficult for Messi to be successful for Argentina than when he plays for Barcelona. He exploited the small weaknesses in the Argentinian side which left Messi completely helpless. No matter how brilliant Messi is as an individual player, Dalic reiterated how football is a team sportand how it is virtually impossible for one lone man to change everything when the opposition is playing well as a team.
The plan was simple. The Croatian team tried to avoid the ball reaching Messi and they also took care to ensure that he did not get the ball in areas which he prefers. It was a tactical plan and the players followed it through to the end. This cut off supplies to Messi and hence he had to keep coming further down to get the ball rather than creating opportunities further up.
Meanwhile, Messi has been left out of the Argentina national squad which will face Mexico in two international friendlies later this month. This however does not come as a surprise as he hasn’t played in any of the last 4 international friendlies since the end of the World Cup in Russia. He is belied to have requested to be excused from national duty for the rest of the year. Without Messi, Argentina beat Iraq 4-0 and Guatemala 3-0 but drew 0-0 with Colombia and lost their last outing 1-0 to bitter rivals Brazil. In Messi’s last appearance for Argentina, they were knocked out of the World Cup 4-3 by eventual champions France in the Round of 16.
