Sports desk: Argentina, the hot favorite of the tournament, defeated Mexico 2-0 in the fight for their survival in the Qatar World Cup. Today at 1 pm Bangladesh time, Argentina will face Mexico in the ordeal at the Lucile Iconic Stadium. Messi-Di Maria failed to score at the end of the first half. However, Argentina returned from the break with a pair of goals.
Argentina started playing attacking football from the beginning of the match. They attacked in the second minute of the match. But there is no danger from there. On the other hand, Mexico started to play based on counter attack. Mexico gets a corner in the 8th minute of the match. But they could not create opportunities from it. Although the opportunity was created from the free kick in the 9th minute of the match, Mexico could not use it.
Mexico gets a free kick from outside the D box in the 20th minute of the match. However, Mexico could not use that free kick. Emiliano Martinez gloved Alex Vega’s free kick. Nestor Araujo was shown a yellow card by the referee for fouling De Paul in the 22nd minute of the match. In the 25th minute of the match, Argentina went on an organized attack. Lautoro Martinez’s shot from the right goes wide of the post.
Argentina won a corner in the 31st minute of the match. Argentina failed to use that corner. Argentina gets a free kick if De Paul is fouled on the right side. Mexico’s goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa blocked the free kick taken by Messi. Argentina went on the attack in the 37th minute of the match but could not give its fullness.
In the 40th minute of the match, Argentina got a corner again. Messi takes the shot corner. Di Maria crosses after receiving the ball from Messi. Lautoro Martinez heads in his cross. But it goes over the crossbar. Gonzalo Montiel was shown a yellow card by the referee for a foul outside the D box in the 43rd minute of the match. Emiliano Martinez saved the team with a free kick taken from outside the D box.
After some attacks, both teams failed to score. In the end, Argentina and Mexico went into the break goalless.
After the break, both teams started playing desperately in the hope of scoring. Gutierrez saw a yellow card for fouling Messi outside the D box in the 50th minute of the match. Messi’s free kick goes over the crossbar. Even after 50 minutes of the match, both teams remain scoreless. In the 55th minute of the match, the Argentine strikers failed to touch Di Maria’s extension from the right side.
Since then, Argentina has increased its attack. Mexico gets a free kick in the 59th minute of the match. Although the possibility of danger was created from that free kick, it was cleared by the defenders of Argentina. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni replaced Lautoro Martinez with Julian Alvarez in the 63rd minute of the match hoping for a goal.
Argentina scored in the 64th minute of the match. Lionel Messi netted the ball with a great shot from outside the D box. His goal gave Argentina the lead in the match. Mexico started to play desperately after falling behind. On the other hand, Argentina started to attack in equal rhythm. In the 76th minute of the match, Argentina failed to score a goal after creating a chance to attack from the right side.
After that, Mexico got a free kick in the 80th minute of the match. However, Emiliano Martinez easily took the head from that free kick in his gloves. Mexico gets a corner in the 85th minute of the match. But they could not use it. Instead, Argentina goes to counter attack.
Argentina took a corner in the 87th minute of the match. From there, Argentina scored again in the 87th minute of the match. Andro Fernandez put the ball into the net with a wonderful shot from just inside the D box. Thanks to this goal, Argentina got a two-goal lead. Also, Mexico was knocked out of the match.
After several attacks, both teams failed to score. In the end, if there were no more goals, Argentina kept the World Cup dream alive by winning 2-0.
