After surviving a late scare to secure qualification to the World Cup quarterfinals, Argentina defeated Australia with a convincing 2-1 victory.
With a stunning strike in the 35th minute, Argentina captain Lionel Messi gave his team the lead.
Messi, who was playing his 1000th career game, was clearly fired up as he scored against Australia in the 35th minute after receiving the ball from Alexis MacAllister inside the area, taking a touch, and putting his shot into the corner of the net.
Julian Alvarez extended Argentina’s lead by two goals in just 22 minutes. He took advantage of Australia goalkeeper Mat Ryan’s terrible error in the second half to boost his team’s standing in the game. But Australia persisted, and in the 77th minute, they scored their first goal. A shot by Craig Goodwin from outside the area struck Enzo Fernandez, before eventually finding the goal.
As Australia repeatedly attempted to equalize, the game became tense. And they came dangerously close to doing so in the 80th minute when Aziz Behich made a magnificent run while dodging Argentina’s defenders.
As shown by ESPN in their recent tweet, Beziz appeared to be on track to put the ball in the goal, but Lisandro Martinez, who entered the game just five minutes after the half, nearly prevented Behich from doing so before making a perfectly timed tackle to keep his team ahead.
Australia's coach Graham Arnold couldn't believe Lisandro Martínez blocked this shot 😱 pic.twitter.com/ljyO4sDm1v
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) December 3, 2022
If Martinez had not demonstrated his mastery of sending the ball outside the goalpost, Beziz might have dashed Argentina’s hopes.
Martinez’s stop allowed Argentina to advance to the round of eight and solidified his own position in the squad for the quarterfinal match against the Netherlands. Argentina’s journey has been intense after they were initially shocked by Saudi Arabia. After that, they recovered in the competition with victories over Mexico and Poland.
The Netherlands, who defeated the United States 3-1 on Saturday, will now be their next opponent.
