‘Bothers Us’—Argentina Duo Reveal Huge Problem That Could End Lionel Messi’s World Cup

The champion has been pushed to the edge of elimination during the World Cup knockout rounds.

Lisandro Martínez (left) and Cristian Romero have been Argentina’s defensive leaders this summer. | Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images

Argentina is favored to progress past Switzerland to continue its World Cup title defense in the semifinals, but center backs Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez are aware that a third consecutive poor defensive performance could easily result in La Albiceleste’s elimination on Saturday night.

After conceding only once during a perfect group stage, the knockout rounds have somewhat exposed Argentina’s leaky defense. Cabo Verde and Egypt combined to score four against the reigning champion over the last two games, forcing Argentina to dig-deep and pull-off miraculous escapes to keep its title defense alive.

With the level of opposition rising, Argentina must find a way to rediscover its defensive solidity or Switzerland could emerge victorious in their quarterfinal bout.

“We’re doing well, though there are certainly things we need to improve,” Romero said on the eve of the clash. “We've conceded four goals in our recent matches. Conceding goals bothers us. Beyond that, we are always at the team’s disposal, ready to give our best for the squad and follow the manager’s decision.”

Romero echoed the sentiment center back partner Martínez delivered following the 3–2 win over Egypt. “We don’t like conceding goals, and we definitely need to be a little more focused,” Martínez said. “I think that with better concentration, we can avoid those goals.

“It’s part of the game, it’s better that it happens now, that we’re more focused, with our feet firmly on the ground, and we can avoid those scoring opportunities.”

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Argentina Using ‘Favoritism’ Allegations as Motivation

Argentina’s win over Egypt wasn’t without its fair share of controversy. | Ayman Aref/NurPhoto/Getty Images

In reality, Argentina conceded three goals against Egypt, but one of those was controversially disallowed—promoting incredible levels of anger from Egypt’s manager and federation. Argentina barely surviving and being aided by a refereeing decision only intensified the already major discourse—or conspiracy rather—of FIFA doing everything to favor La Albiceleste and Lionel Messi.

Manager Lionel Scaloni shared his thoughts on the matter on the eve of the clash against Switzerland.

“Since 1986 they say we are favored,” Scaloni said. “It’s nothing new. Since I have use of reason, because Argentina is always one of the tournament contenders. In a way, we use it to show the players that there’s people that don’t want Argentina to win.

“It’s normal, as can happen with any other team, the thing is that there’s probably a lot more people that don’t want us to win, maybe because we won the last one. Yes, the players know about this and we use it as a sort of rebellion, they rebel so that they play even better.

“Nowadays with VAR, it’s very difficult [for referees] to help you. There’s no double interpretation with VAR, they’ve made it very clear in the course they gave us before the start of the World Cup.” Scaloni went on to give a detailed explanation of why Egypt’s goal was disallowed correctly.

“Then of course, on social media everything gets magnified and the debate starts there,” Scaloni added. “But there’s no favoritism, to the contrary, it’s very difficult nowadays to favor a team, very difficult.”

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Argentina Aware That Switzerland Represents Big Threat

Messi (front left) and Argentina will have to be at their best against a dangerous European foe. | Steph Chambers/FIFA/Getty Images

Aside from controversies, Argentina has been pushed to the brink by two rivals it was expected to dominate. Switzerland might not be an international powerhouse, but it’s by far the toughest test La Albiceleste has faced this summer.

“No rival is the same or easy,” Scaloni said. “To me, it’s a great team [Switzerland]. It competes with the best national teams and always pushes forward. It has World Cuop heritage and experienced players, physically they are very strong. It will be a difficult rival and we respect it like every other. There’s a reason why it made it this far and eliminated Colombia.”

Similarly, Romero also praised Switzerland’s quality and recognized that Argentina will be forced to deliver its best if it wants to advance to the semifinal.

“Every match has been tough for us and tomorrow will be very difficult,” Romero admitted ahead of the clash. “Switzerland didn’t make it easy for Colombia at all. In my view, Switzerland dominated the entire game. It’s going to be a great match. They have very good players, and we're prepared.”

Argentina has dominated the rivalry against Switzerland, and will hope that continues in the quarterfinal at Kansas City. The winner of the clash will move on to face the winner of England vs. Norway in the semifinals.

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