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DOHA, Qatar — Lionel Messi mentioned he was “aggravated” by his penalty miss in Argentina’s Group C conflict with Poland, however praised his teammates for the constructive response which noticed the South American champions seal a 2-0 win to ebook a Spherical of 16 tie in opposition to Australia.
Argentina, who misplaced their World Cup opener in opposition to Saudi Arabia, completed high of their group after second-half objectives by Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez led them to a 2-0 win over Poland.
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After beginning the sport in second place and needing to win to make sure of qualification, Argentina’s hopes have been hit when Poland keeper Wojciech Szczesny saved Messi’s thirty ninth minute penalty.
Mac Allister’s aim within the forty sixth minute put Argentina on track for victory, although, and Messi mentioned he by no means doubted Argentina would win regardless of his spot kick miss.
“I am aggravated that I’ve missed the penalty,” Messi mentioned. “However the staff got here out stronger after my mistake.
“The staff was satisfied that we have been going to win, it was a matter of scoring the primary aim. After that, the remainder of the sport was performed the best way we needed.”
Mac Allister, Alvarez and Enzo Fernandez all made huge contributions for Argentina and alleviated the burden on Messi to ship.
“We mentioned it from the start, the participant who has to return in is aware of what he has to do and is all the time totally ready,” Messi mentioned. “The energy of this group is the unity and everybody answered the decision.”
Argentina now face Australia on Saturday in Al Rayyan, with coach Lionel Scaloni saying he can’t perceive the short turnaround between video games.
“It is now practically 2 a.m. on Thursday morning and we now have to play once more on Saturday,” Scaloni mentioned. “I do not perceive this, however we simply have to arrange as finest we are able to.”
Regardless of being sturdy favourites to beat Australia and ebook a quarterfinal tie in opposition to the US or Netherlands, Messi mentioned that the 2-1 defeat in opposition to Saudi Arabia will function a warning to Argentina to protect in opposition to complacency.
“We have discovered loads after we began [the World Cup] with a defeat,” Messi mentioned. “It was a nasty begin, everybody was upset and frightened.
“Let’s go calmly, we have to take that strategy. Hopefully we are able to proceed enjoying like we did at this time and present our greatest.”
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