Qatar 2022: Messi’s Argentina Humbles Croatia, Reaches World Cup Final -By Shereefdeen Ahmad

Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday at the Lusail Stadium to set up a final showpiece with winners of Wednesday’s semifinal clash between holders France and Morocco, thanks to Julian Alvarez’s brace and Lionel Messi’s spot-kick effort.

The two-time world champions, Argentina have produced their best performance so far in the campaign, having wrapped up the first-half with a 2-0 lead.

The game bursted into life after Enzo Fernandez’s low shot from outside the box was pushed away by Croatia keeper Dominik Livakovic at the 25th minute. Minutes after, the same Fernandez setup Julian Alvarez in a one-and-one encounter with goalkeeper Livakovic who collided with the striker after he shot the ball inside the box and awarded the penalty to the South American side.

Lionel Messi converted the spot kick to put Argentina at 1-0 lead in the 34th minute. The captain’s landmark goal made him the joint top-scorer with France’s Kylian Mbappe with five goals, while surpassing Gabriel Batistuta record of becoming Argentina’s all-time World Cup top scorer with 11 goals.

Argentina doubled their lead following a brilliant solo effort from Julian Alvarez, after he picked the ball from center to break in between the Croatian defense.

The 2018 runners-up Croatia could not respond before the break , and minutes into the second-half, Argentina capped up the 3-0 victory following a Lionel Messi’s exceptional break through from the right flank to locate Julian Alvarez who slotted it home.

Messi’s Argentina will go into their second World Cup final in eight years, having previously suffered a heartbreaking defeat against Germany in 2014, the South American side will be hoping to win their third world cup title .

Croatia, who lost to France at the final in the last edition, have bowed out of the tournament after kicking out the favorites, Brazil in the Quarter-final.