Argentina entered the situation of having to win to get a ticket to the next round, the Tango team replaced 5 positions in the starting lineup and renewed the tactical diagram in this match.
A fatal mistake in the loss to Croatia caused goalkeeper Caballero to lose his position to Franco Armani. In addition, Gonzalo Higuain made his first start at the 2018 World Cup. Marcos Rojo also returned to the starting lineup to partner Nicolas Otamendi.
Right after the opening whistle, Messi and his teammates put great pressure on the Nigeria goal. With a 4-4-2 formation, Argentina had a better balance between defense and counter-attack. Consecutive attacks were created, putting Nigeria in a position to defend.
In the 14th minute, from a pass from his teammate, Messi escaped to control the ball skillfully and shot with his right foot diagonally, defeating goalkeeper Uzoho to open the score.
With the goal, the Argentine players continued to play enthusiastically. And it seems that every pass has come to Messi's position. The Argentine captain is becoming the soul of the Tango team's playing style.
In the 34th minute, Messi had a chance before a direct free kick in front of the left wing's penalty area. However, Messi's free kick hit the post.
With a ball possession rate of up to 63%, Argentina outperformed their opponents in every aspect and continuously put additional pressure on in the first half.
However, when the second half of the match had just gone less than 5 minutes, Nigeria was awarded a penalty because Macherano was believed to have pulled down an opponent player in the penalty area. On the 11m mark, Moses easily brought home the equalizer 1-1.
In the following minutes, Argentina were stuck in their search for a way into the Nigeria goal. The players from Africa organized a solid defense at home and blocked all balls from Messi and his teammates.
However, the Ninja players still created scoring opportunities from quick counter-attacks. In the 75th minute, Mercado let the ball touch his hand in the penalty area, but after using VAR, the referee refused to award a penalty to Nigeria.
And then, after a series of pressures created by Argentina, they scored to increase the score to 2-1. In the 86th minute, Mercado crossed the ball, Rojo broke into the penalty area and made a beautiful volley into the Nigeria net.
This was the goal that helped Argentina win a ticket to the dramatic round of 16 of the 2018 World Cup.
