FIFA World Cup 2018: What Went Wrong For Argentina
Argentina are out of the World Cup and even the likes of Messi could not save their dream of winning the title this time in Russia. Didier Deschamps' side proved to be too much for them to handle. The loss meant that they would be going home, with France pushing through to the quarter-final of the tournament. It was a sad day for the fans, as Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football after his team had been eliminated from the tournament.
The South American side, managed by Sampaoli witnessed a really poor tournament and were disappointing in the game against France. The European side were clearly the better team on the night and deserved a win.
A total of four goals were conceded in the match by Argentina, scoring just thrice (a late goal by Aguero) and it was not enough for them to stay in the competition. The loss raised eyebrows after yet another poor performance from Messi and co.
When a team loses any game, there are a lot of fingers pointed at a lot of different people. One thing to remember here is that Football is a team game after all and the loss cannot be put on just one individual.
It was quite evident what was wrong with the Argentine side this time. That being said, below are the three main factors that were responsible for Messi and his team to go home.
#1 - Aguero, Higuain and Dybala on the bench
In a game which should have seen Sampaoli play all his best players, the Argentine manager decided to bench all his strikers and play with more midfielders instead. It is understandable that if things might not go his way due to a poor game. In this case, the coach left out three goal-scorers with more than 100 goals combined between them in the domestic season.
He might not have picked the Manchester City man, as the attacker lashed out at him after the loss against Croatia. Just imagine what a difference Aguero could have made if he had started. The attacker scored a late goal to make it 4-3, though the team were in need of more. With Messi being the lone player up front, there was no aerial threat and the French defenders must have felt rather comfortable to an extent.