super all-rounder

Chapter 468 Chapter 466: Messi's World Cup debut!

The game between South Africa and Mexico heralded the official start of the World Cup in South Africa.

Powerful players from all walks of life are about to appear on the stage one after another. How is their status?
At 08:30 that night, another match of Group A was held at the Green Point Stadium in Cape Town, France-Uruguay!

It was a clash between two former world champions, both teams advanced to the finals through play-offs.

Uruguay's striker was led by Suarez and veteran Forlan, France formed a four-five-one formation, Anelka became the only striker, behind him was the extremely powerful Ribery.

After the start of the game, the two sides seemed very cautious. In the 7th minute, France suddenly accelerated. Ribery broke through Victorino from the left and made a cross, but Govou missed the opportunity from the edge of the penalty area, and the ball slipped wide of the far corner!

In the 13th minute, Gourcuff took France's first corner kick, and Govou's header was blocked by Suarez at the edge of the small penalty area.

Both teams had no achievements in the first half. After a 15-minute intermission, the two teams switched sides and fought again, and the score was still stalemate.

Both sides paid great attention to defense and basically did not give each other too many chances. In the end, the two sides ended up with a zero-to-zero goalless draw and shook hands.

The French team, the runner-up of the last World Cup, failed to win the closing games of the three consecutive World Cups. Both sides are not very satisfied with this result.

So far, the first round of Group A has ended, and both games ended in a draw.

Group A is over, and Group B is on the stage. The seed team in Group B is the Argentine team led by football king Maradona. The biggest star in the Argentine team is of course last year's World Footballer Messi.

Argentina has always been full of talents, so this is Messi's first World Cup trip, which is different from Ronaldo. This is already his second World Cup trip for the Portuguese star.

Before the start of the World Cup, many media believed that Messi and Ronaldo will compete for No.1 in the world today in this World Cup.

How will Messi perform in his first World Cup?
This gets people's attention.

At [-] pm on the [-]th, the match between Argentina and Nigeria, the African powerhouse, will be held at Ellis Park Stadium in Johannesburg.

Maradona formed a four-three-three attacking formation, Carlos Tevez, Higuain and Messi were the starting strikers, and Milito, who scored twice in the Champions League final, sat on the bench.

It can be seen from this that Argentina has a lot of talents on the striker line. In other national teams, a striker like Milito must be the starting striker doing his part.

Nigeria also deployed a four-three-three attacking formation, which shows that both teams want to win this game and get a good start.

Maradona has set foot in the World Cup again since 1994, but this time as a coach. Since losing to Cameroon in the 1990 World Cup, Argentina has won three times against African teams, including Nigeria twice.

Argentina's recent warm-up matches were overtaken by Haiti and Canada, Messi, Higuain and Carlos Tevez scored 83 goals last season!
This is a terrifying striker combination!

After the game started, Nigeria took the lead.

In the 3rd minute, Odia made a pass from the right, but Gutierrez failed to intercept it. Obasi passed Gutierrez and shot a low shot from the left side of the penalty area!
The football slides out!

Argentina immediately retaliated. Messi broke into the left side of the penalty area and made a cross. Higuain pushed a shot from the edge of the penalty area!
The football goes wide of the goal!

Argentina missed the chance to score first.

In the 6th minute, Argentina made a comeback, Higuain passed the ball to Messi after stealing the ball in the front court, and the Barcelona striker volleyed from inside the penalty area!
The football was tenaciously saved by the Nigerian goalkeeper Enyama!

Messi completes his first shot in the World Cup.

Veteran Veron kicked a corner kick into the Nigeria penalty area, Argentine iron guard Heinze made a beautiful header, and the football went straight to the upper left corner of the goal!

This time Enyama could do nothing but watch the football fly into the net!

The ball is in!
The score became one to zero!

Argentina got off to a fantastic start!

Standing in the command area, Maradona waved his fists. This is his first World Cup game as a coach. This is his team's first goal in the World Cup.

This ball inspired the offensive factor in the blood of the Argentines. In the subsequent games, they launched wave after wave of offensive frenzy against Nigeria.

In the 9th minute, Gutierrez made a pass from the right and was cleared. Di Maria returned a pass. Tevez shot a long shot in front of the restricted area. The football was blocked by the Nigerian goalkeeper.

No.16 minutes, Veron made a long pass to Messi, Enyama attacked and confiscated the ball!
No.18 minutes, Carlos Tevez passed the ball, Messi arced a low shot 25 meters away from the goal!
The football flies to the lower left corner of the goal!

Enyama made another brave football save!

No. In 201 minutes, Carlos Tevez made a direct pass from outside the penalty area, and Higuain shot from the right side of the penalty area eight meters away from the goal!
Enyama once again made a brave football save!

Higuai, who missed the chance to score, covered his face in pain.

No. 307 minutes, Mascherano passed the ball, Messi shot with his left foot from the right side of the penalty area 12 meters from the goal, the ball was caught by Enyama in the far corner and then wiped the post and missed.

Argentina entered the second half with a one-goal lead, and they controlled the rhythm of the game by virtue of their strength advantage.

Messi is still working hard for his first goal in the World Cup.

In the 4th minute of the second half, Veron made a cross from the right, and Messi shot from the previous point, and the football went wide of the goal.

In the No.14 minute of the second half, Mascherano passed the ball, Messi broke into the penalty area and shot a low shot from the left side, Enyama saved the football!

Under Enyama's high-speed resistance, Nigeria forcibly made Argentina's terrifying offensive waves return without success time and time again.

However, Nigeria's offense is weak and it is difficult to form a threat to Argentina's goal.

The final score was fixed at 6 to [-]. Argentina scored a header with iron guard Heinze in the [-]th minute of the start, and scored a small victory over the African powerhouse Nigeria team with one goal, making a good start.

Nigerian goalkeeper Enyama was voted man of the match for his outstanding performance as Lionel Messi failed to score his first World Cup goal.

Although Messi did not score, many media praised him after the game.

The French newspaper L'Equipe commented: Messi did not score, but in the game against Nigeria, he was indeed the most dazzling figure in the Argentine team.He also created the most threats in the whole game. It can be said that in the first game of the World Cup, Messi showed his temperament as the new king of Argentina.

The game had just started, and Messi showed his sharpness. In the 3rd minute, he dribbled the ball on the left side of the center and passed several Nigerians in a row. The three Nigerian defenders defended but did not dare to attack. Messi sent a wonderful pass to Higuain. Unfortunately, Higuain missed the goalkeeper.In the 5th minute, Messi shot again, but the ball was lifted out of the crossbar by the opponent's goalkeeper, which made coach Maradona quite regretful.

Every time Messi takes the ball, he can make the opponent's defense feel overwhelmed.

The head coach of the Nigerian team, Radebeck, said before the game that he would not send someone to mark Messi, because Argentina does not only have Messi, but only one person.

Judging from the situation on the field, Nigeria did not send someone to keep an eye on Messi.This also caused Messi to have a very wide range of activities on the court. In the first half, Messi had two very classic 45-degree shots in front of the penalty area.

Messi's breakthrough made the Nigerian defender feel overwhelmed, and they only started to act on Messi in front of the penalty area, and it was obviously too late to act at this time, and Nigeria could only pay the price of a foul.

In any case, Messi's activities in the frontcourt have greatly involved the power of Nigeria's counterattack, and Messi is gradually integrating into Argentina, gradually finding his feelings, and his love for Argentina is getting stronger and stronger.

"Messi is no longer a child!"

All members of the Argentine team, including coach Maradona, believe that Messi is mature enough to assume the role of team leader, and this World Cup is likely to become Messi's World Cup.

Messi made a good start and successfully drove the "Rolls-Royce" in Argentina into the fast track.

Next, what he has to do is to pierce the window paper of the goal.

As long as he passes this hurdle, he can lead Argentina to go further and complete the qualitative change from superstar to world champion, just like what Maradona said before the game: "Messi is like me in the 1986 World Cup, he is even better than me."

(End of this chapter)