Messi leaves the World Cup after the defeat of Argentina in France

MOSCOW-Lionel Messi: Great club footballer, maybe even the greatest ever, but also a great underachiever on football

This is the inevitable verdict of the World Cup by the fast feet of a teenager as exciting and full of potential as Messi himself was at the same age.

Enter Kylian. Farewell Lionel

Kylian Mbappe scored twice in a 4-3 win that put France into the quarterfinals and surely spelled the end of the Messi era that covered four World Cups for the first time. Argentina

The young French prodigy exploded on the World Cup stage in 2006, scoring one goal and creating another in his debut as a substitute in the second half. But unlike 19-year-old Mbappe, who scored two goals on Saturday, Messi has never scored a goal in scoring the most wins in knockout matches.

The round match of 16, showing that he has the mental strength to go with defensive speed and talent to score goals. It was Mbappe's first taste of the ruthless pressure of the knockout rounds. He prospered. Messi has not done it yet.

This was an eighth World Cup match for Messi, including the final won by Germany in 2014. Diego Maradona, winner of the 1986 World Cup in Kazan Arena to witness this defeat in eight games at World Cup straight elimination during his career for Argentina. Maradona is snuck into the World Cup legend by scoring there.

Four goals in total, at the 1986 World Cup that Argentina won with Maradona as captain. Two – one sublime, the other the ridiculous hand of God – Maradona scored in the quarterfinals against England. The other two suffered a 2-0 semi-final defeat to Belgium, which allowed Argentina to beat Germany 3-2.

This win and these goals are the reason for which Maradona is mentioned in the same breath as Pelé. winner of the World Cup. And as Messi will not be at the end of his exploits at the football hall of fame, Messi will always be at his feet.

Like Johan Cruyff and George Best, people will remember Messi's talents for decades to come. They will talk about his Barcelona goals record, trophies accumulated with the Catalan club and his five world player titles of the year. But they will also wonder how the scorer of Argentina has never been able to win the World Cup trophy and score only in the first matches of the group stage.

The fault was never the only one of Messi. At this World Cup in Russia, probably his last knockout at the age of 31, his Argentine teammates did not have the skills, strategies or training to bring their star into play as the makes his Barcelona club. Messi was often isolated, transparent, a spectator against France, visible only because of his bright green shoes. He was neutralized for long periods by N & # 39; Golo Kante, defensive midfielder of France ball.

"We tried different tactics – surround him, create situations for him," said Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli. "We tried to use everything we had to allow him to do what he could do, sometimes we did it, sometimes not."

The Other School of thought is that Messi is also responsible for never having met the high expectations of Argentina, that he does not care, but that is unfair.It certainly seemed to be concerned for Argentina's random campaign at this World Cup, from the moment he frustrated his captain's armband after a 1-1 draw in the group stage with Iceland, where he has missed a penalty until the end.He was standing in Kazan, hands on hips after defeat, he seemed to have died inside.

L & # 39; The momentum of Messi's career in the World Cup contains many moments to cherish – goals against Iran and Bosnia in 2014, but still in group matches. successful penalty shootout in the 2014 semi-final against the Netherlands. At other times when he put his teammates to score

Messi made it again against France, with a long pbad sent as a kiss to the head of Sergio Aguero, who led the ball for the ultimate unsuccessful purpose. 19659006] But let's go back to the very beginning of Messi's career in the World Cup, to the kid who almost celebrated his 19th birthday and who was applauded by the super-fan Maradona for the first time, against Serbia, and the jump did not take place. It's not just the speed that Messi wore at the time, but also how confident and careless he seemed.

It is far from the Messi anxious about Russia, but that looks a lot like Mbappe now. While the World Cup loses a star, it creates another.

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