{"id":395203,"date":"2022-12-13T17:52:49","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T22:52:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/ca\/?post_type=news&#038;p=395203"},"modified":"2022-12-13T17:57:36","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T22:57:36","slug":"messi-fires-argentina-to-world-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/news\/messi-fires-argentina-to-world-cup-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi fires Argentina into World Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Leo Messi&#8217;s lifelong dream of guiding Argentina to their third World Cup title remained alive as he produced one of his magical displays to inspire La Albiceleste to a 3-0 win over Croatia at the Lusail Stadium on Tuesday and fire his side into Sunday\u2019s final.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Argentina are in the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#FIFAWorldCup<\/a> Final! \ud83d\udd25<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/adidasfootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@adidasfootball<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Qatar2022?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Qatar2022<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FIFAWorldCup\/status\/1602769111523774467?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>The 35-year-old Paris Saint-Germain star put Argentina ahead from the penalty spot in the 34th minute after fellow forward Julian Alvarez was brought down by goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic.<\/p>\n<p>Messi become Argentina\u2019s all-time World Cup top scorer with 11 goals before Alvarez added a second five minutes following a magnificent 50-metre solo run.<\/p>\n<p>The duo combined once again for Argentina\u2019s third goal midway through the second half when Messi toyed with Croatia\u2019s Josko Gvardiol out wide before driving past him into the box and laying on a pass for Alvarez to slot home.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-395207 aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/arg-cro.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" alt=\"\" width=\"680\" height=\"680\" title=\"\"><\/p>\n<p>The 2018 runners-up Croatia were toothless throughout and registered just a single shot on target. They\u00a0paid the price for some atypically poor defending as they went out in the last four for the second time after their 1998 loss to France in their maiden tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Argentina will now look to lift a third world crown after triumphs in 1978 and 1986. They last appeared in a final in 2014, when they were beaten 1-0 by Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Clinching the trophy would also elevate seven-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Messi to the mythical status that the late Diego Maradona enjoys in the South American country.<\/p>\n<div class=\"container--ads in-article-ads\">\n<div class=\"ads\">\n<div class=\"ads__slot\">\n<div>\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-544635102373\" class=\"freestar-ads\">The final could mark his last appearance at the World Cup as the ex-Barcelona forward having hinted the 2022 edition will be his last.<\/div>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The first player to win \ud83d\udd1f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Budweiser?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@Budweiser<\/a> Player of the Match awards. Lionel Messi is <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/FIFAWorldCup?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#FIFAWorldCup<\/a> royalty. \ud83d\udc51<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/POTM?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#POTM<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/YoursToTake?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#YoursToTake<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BringHomeTheBud?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#BringHomeTheBud<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/budfootball?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@budfootball<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/arbsmePtJl\" target=\"_blank\">pic.twitter.com\/arbsmePtJl<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FIFAWorldCup\/status\/1602796916441583616?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">December 13, 2022<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\u201cA lot is going through my head \u2013 it\u2019s very emotional seeing all of this,\u201d Messi,\u00a0 who won Player of the match award, said in a post-match interview on the field.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo see the fans \u2013 \u2018the family\u2019 \u2013 during the whole tournament was so incredible. We\u2019re going to the final, which is what we wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>On Sunday, Argentina will face either defending champions France or surprise package Morocco, the first Arab and African country to make it to a World Cup semifinal.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Leo Messi&#8217;s lifelong dream of guiding Argentina to their third World Cup title remained alive as he produced one of his magical displays [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4224,"featured_media":395204,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[17134,16898],"news_category":[16671,14235,14236,16715],"gn_keywords":[],"acf":{"announce":"Argentina\u2019s captain was in sparkling form at Lusail Stadium.","video":[]},"rank_math_focus_keyword":"","rank_math_description":"","rank_math_title":"","rank_math_robots":"","rank_math_canonical_url":"","rank_math_facebook_title":"","rank_math_facebook_description":"","rank_math_facebook_image":"","rank_math_twitter_title":"","rank_math_twitter_description":"","rank_math_twitter_image":"","rank_math_snippet_shortcode":"","rank_math_primary_category":"","rankmath_seo":{"focus_keyword":"","description":"","title":"","canonical_url":"","robots":"","facebook":{"title":"","description":"","image":""},"twitter":{"title":"","description":"","image":""}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/395203"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=395203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/395203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/395204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=395203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=395203"},{"taxonomy":"news_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news_category?post=395203"},{"taxonomy":"gn_keywords","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/7sport.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/gn_keywords?post=395203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}