After Argentina won the Finalissima against Italy last Wednesday night at Wembley with a virtuoso display from their maestro Lionel Messi, their players were in an ecstatic mood in the dressing room. And if you’re Argentinian, there are few better ways to celebrate than mocking your neighbours and rivals Brazil.
Fresh from the rush of beating the European champions, the Albiceleste players jumped up and down in the bowels of Wembley Stadium, reminding Brazil of what they’d done to get there.
“Brazilian, what happened?”, they sang joyously. “The five-time world champions got scared. Messi went to Rio and took the Copa [America].”
It was a little bit of provocation – entirely unnecessary but tremendous nonetheless. And, almost inevitably, Neymar rose to the bait. Under an Instagram video of the Argentines in full song, the Brazil captain mockingly wrote: “Did they win the World Cup?”
Messi, cool as ever, did not respond. At least not with words.
Yet as soon as he got back onto a football pitch, the answer came in deed. The opposition may only have been an Estonia team 110th in the FIFA rankings – just behind North Korea – but Messi’s five goals in a game were a statement that has already reverberated around the football world.
Did they win the World Cup? No. But they absolutely intend to. Just look at this.
After Messi’s dominant performance at Wembley, during which he laid the first goal on a plate for Lautaro Martinez and set up the third for Paulo Dybala in the last minute, it would have been easy for him to let up a bit as his team played a far less testing opposition in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona, especially after the end of a tough first season at Paris Saint-Germain.
But there would be none of that. Nothing even remotely close, in fact. After Estonia, Argentina have just four games to get themselves ready for Qatar 2022, which could well be Messi’s last shot at the ultimate prize. Messi clearly wants to use those…
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