Argentina reached their sixth World Cup final after securing an impressive victory against 2018’s runners-up Croatia.
Lionel Scaloni’s side will face the winner of France vs Morocco in the final at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday thanks to a penalty from Lionel Messi and two strikes from Julian Alvarez. Argentina began their tournament with a shock 2-1 defeat by Saudi Arabia but have responded with five successive wins to book their place in the final.
After a cagey and even first 30 minutes, the game sprung into life when Alvarez got in behind the Croatia defence and was brought down by goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic. Messi stepped up and smashed in the resulting penalty to make it 1-0.
Argentina doubled their lead shortly after as Alvarez ran from the halfway line, avoiding tackles and benefiting from some fortunate ricochets to smash in from close range. Croatia rarely threatened and the game was put beyond their reach when Messi and Alvarez combined again.
Messi produced some trademark magic to get past Josko Gvardiol and set up Alvarez for a tap-in – his fourth goal of the tournament – which made things safe. They will now have the chance to rectify their pain from the 2014 tournament, when they fell at the final hurdle.
