Julian Alvarez upstaged Lionel Messi with a moment of pure quality as Argentina booked their place in the World Cup semi-finals with a 3-1 extra-time win over Switzerland on 12 July, setting up a mouthwatering last-four meeting with England on Wednesday.
“We will do everything to make sure Lionel Messi wins the World Cup again. Every game is a battle for him,” said Alvarez after the match.
The Atletico Madrid striker curled a stunning effort into the top corner from the edge of the box in the 112th minute to break the deadlock, before Lautaro Martinez added a third late on to complete the victory and end a spirited Swiss resistance.
“The first thing I did when I scored was to hug him,” Alvarez added, reflecting on his bond with the Argentina captain.
The contest was overshadowed by a contentious sending-off for Switzerland’s Breel Embolo, dismissed after a VAR review moments after Dan Ndoye had cancelled out Alexis Mac Allister’s early opener. Replays appeared to show Embolo had dived following a challenge from Leandro Paredes, fuelling debate over the decision.
For once, it was Messi who found himself in a supporting role. The Argentina captain teed up Mac Allister’s opener with an outswinging corner inside the opening ten minutes, extending his remarkable record of never having assisted the same team-mate twice at a World Cup, a run stretching back to his tournament debut against Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. Beyond that early contribution, though, the 39-year-old struggled to influence proceedings and failed to score for the first time in the competition, with a mistimed lob and a shot dragged wide the closest he came, his workload of three successive periods of extra time across a gruelling week clearly taking its toll.
“We aren’t just playing for ourselves, we’re playing for our families and our people,” Alvarez said, explaining what continues to drive Argentina’s pursuit of a second successive world title.
“Things got difficult even though we had a man extra for the whole of extra time, but we knew the goal would come,” he said of the tense closing stages.
Asked about scrutiny surrounding the squad, Alvarez insisted the group remained unaffected by outside noise.
“The group is very united, very strong. Now it’s time to rest and think about the next one,” he said.
“There are two more left, and we’re going to go for them with everything.”
