⚽️ FIFA WORLD CUP : 2018 - RUSSIA ⚽️ ഭൂഗോളമാകെ ഫുട്ബോൾ ലഹരിയിൽ ⚽️

Adipoli

 

Messi was the best player in 2014 WC, second top scorer in 2016 copa, and most assist provider in 2015 copa. Some idiots r criticising him.
Ronaldo though he didnot shined in WC that much, he still has a euro cup despite getting injured in final. Some idiots take it as luck and still criticise him. Messi performance helped argentina to get in to WC Final stage , he provided two assists yesterday despite France victory. Ppl still crucify him. CR7 was pivotal in the spain match and dragging portugal to WC Finals as well. These idiots troll him as well. I heard some of them saying griezmann/mbappe was better than messi and suarez/cavani better than ronaldo. I asked them back when was the last time you guys have seen a player singlehandedly wins the WC..Pele,maradona,zidane. Ok . Did pele win it all alone. Brasilian team of 60s was full of talents in each playng position. Garrincha,santos,gilmar and all. much like spain of 2010. And did pele shined in competitive club tournaments? No. he was seldom known outside brasil,his career was limited to santos and we well knw the standards of brasilrao.
Secondly, maradona got the support of batista,oscar ,burruchaga and others...he was disaster in club football...zidane has henry,deschamps ..however when it comes to consistency, he s no where near ronnie and messi.. Then whats the big fuss all about? May be i dont understand ever.
I have never seen a goal scorer on par with cristiano ronaldo and a playmaker like lionel messi. Yes, they deserve a WC. But football is not squash/table tennis, its a team game. If ronnie/leo didnt get a WC, that didnt mean they r good for nothing.They r still G-O-A-T. If they have played in two periods, each of them may have 10 ballondor to their kittys.The whole thing is really getting on my nerves .Haters go..get a life !

 

“We have the best player in the world and we had to try to create collective situations to really use that player who can have many brilliant moments.

”We tried many different tactics, surround him, create space for him, so we tried to use everything we had to allow him to do what he can do. Sometimes we managed it, sometimes we didn’t.

”[The players] fought until the end and they nearly equalised at the end and that’s what I really, really value. They worked very hard and I want to say thank you.”
Sampaoli also said he wouldn’t be quitting after the game although Javier Mascherano has announced his international retirement.

@Mark Twain @Derrick abraham @Gokul @Kunjaadu @Mayavi 369

 

Lionel Messi and Argentina crashed out of the 2018 World Cup after barely making it to the knockout rounds.

This defeat hurts much less than the loss to Germany four years ago. Back then, Messi was in his prime and Argentina had looked acceptable for most of the tournament. There was a decent probability of the Albiceleste winning and Mario Gotze’s winning goal broke about a million hearts in extra-time.

This time around, Argentina has overachieved despite their elimination in the last 16. They did not deserve to qualify for the World Cup and if it wasn’t for Messi, the Argentina squad would be vacationing right now. They did not deserve to get out of the group stage but by some miracle, they did. After pulling off two absolute miracles, while some might have gotten their hopes up (after all, luck plays a huge part in such competitions), the truth is that winning against France would have been asking for one miracle too many.
Messi doesn’t deserve to go out of the competition prematurely and he didn’t. This team pushed itself to the limit and whether we accept the result or not, the reality is that this is as far as Argentina deserved to go in the World Cup.
Messi’s career reminds me of the cricketing legend, Sachin Tendulkar. Tendulkar was arguably the greatest player of his generation and for years, he was denied a World Cup. He kept returning to the team in the hopes of laying his hands on that elusive trophy and when he did lift it, I’m sure all that emotional struggle was worth it.
The parallels are remarkable. Both were young prodigies discovered in their teens before becoming the focal point of their teams. They both wore the number 10 and Sachin was an ambassador for Adidas too. Tendulkar was just as cherished and adored as Messi is. If it helps the comparison, they’re both short too.
Greatness has a price and sometimes, it comes when we are no longer leading the charge.
Messi is still capable of returning for the next World Cup and if his physiology permits it, he should play in 2022.

If there’s anyone in this generation of footballers who deserves the World Cup, it is Leo and he has to keep trying for his own sake if not ours.

 

Maradona club career disastero


Adhyam barcayilekaanu poyath. Annu copa del ray eduthu. N super cup

On 26 June 1983, Barcelona defeated Real Madrid on the road in one of the world's biggest club games, El Clásico, a match where Maradona scored and became the first Barcelona player to be applauded by archrival Real Madrid fans.


Matarkumillatha thilakam alkund..
ayal verum 2 seasonu shesham poyath v poyath valiya clubilekalla.. Orikal polum serie A kanditillatha oru clubilekaanu.. Ennitum avarude historyil ulla 2 titilum maradona kalath thanne.. Copa italia 5 il onnum. Ore oru Uefa cup um maradonayude kalathanu..(Napoli)

 

aa team eathanu? avar adutha kali enthayalum jayikkum...njan paranjal athupole sambavikkum

 

Ayikkotte...pakshe messiyumayi compare cheyyumbol disaster thanneyanu..messiede pakuthi club titles maradonaykk illa..opponents applaud kittunath onnum matter cheyyuna karyame alla..ronaldinho kittiyittund..messiykk illa. madridil ninnu.

 

sadumamante swantham south korea

 

MOSCOW -- Is this the last we'll see of Lionel Messi on football's biggest stage, the World Cup? Argentina are out, and with them go a seemingly demoralized, I'd-rather-be-anywhere-than-Russia Lionel Messi. True, he did what he could in the round of 16 with two assists, including a beauty that lead to Kun Aguero's goal. But it wasn't enough. Not even close.

And so the countdown begins. Lionel Messi will be 35 years and 208 days old on Dec. 18, 2022, the day he theoretically gets his next crack at winning the World Cup. Only three players older than that have started a World Cup final and won: Nilton Santos in 1962, Dino Zoff in 1982 and Miroslav Klose in 2014.

That means it has been done before. Sure, it's not an easy thing to do. But this is Messi we're talking about. There's difficult and then there's Messi with the five Ballon d'Ors, the four Champions Leagues and the 552 goals for Barcelona.

Think that's easy?

And yet as great as those achievements were, they were different. Zoff, of course, was a goalkeeper: different rules apply to them. Nilton Santos was the veteran on an uber-dominant Brazil that included the likes of Didi, Zito, Garrincha, Djalma Santos and, until his injury, Pele. Klose started three games during Germany's run, scoring one goal. They had far better supporting casts than what Messi is likely to have in 2022.

More importantly, perhaps, while they were valued team members who made important contributions, these weren't key men. In other words, these weren't heroes who carried their team to glory

But that's exactly what Messi has been, what Messi is and what Messi likely will be, although perhaps not on December 18, 2022. Biology isn't an opinion or a state of mind. We age: our bodies degrade and with them, our ability to make them do what we want.

Some can slow the process, whether because they are freaks of nature or whether because they are maniacal in the care they take of their bodies -- a certain Cristiano Ronaldo, 33, comes to mind -- or whether because they are just fortunate. But nobody can halt it. Not even Messi.

With this elimination comes the knowledge that he won't win the World Cup as a protagonist. He won't follow in the path of Pele and Diego Maradona. (And because the debate is inevitable to some, no, Cristiano Ronaldo may not do it either. But he's in a different category merely by the fact that he's Portuguese and Portugal is not a superpower on the level of Brazil or Argentina. Ronaldo also led Portugal to Euro glory.).

Does Messi's failure at the 2018 World Cup matter to the GOAT debate?

Realistically, it shouldn't. It's a foolish criteria, laid out by those who don't seem to understand chance and probability and what a single individual can and cannot control. Zinedine Zidane won a World Cup in 1998 because his teammates beat Paraguay in extra-time without him and because they beat Italy on penalty kicks. He lost a final in 2006 because, again, without him, they lost to Italy on penalty kicks.

Messi can replay the 2014 final against Germany in his head and no doubt come up with dozens of moments where things could have gone differently and broken his way, many of them outside his control: the most obvious being Gonzalo Higuain's missed chance.

Yet football doesn't work that way. It is a team sport. You can judge individuals on individual achievements, but doing so on collective achievements is fraught with peril and imprecision.

Maybe, on his way home from Russia, Messi is thinking of his four World Cups and what could have been different. In 2006, he was a teenager, with a mere 11 league starts to his name. He made three appearances, two as a substitute and scored a goal. Roberto Abbondanzieri's injury in goal and Jose Pekerman's decision to send on Julio Cruz instead of Messi meant he played no part in the quarterfinals against Germany. The spot kick defeat meant he went home.


Lionel Messi crumbles to the pitch after Argentina lose to France in the World Cup round of 16. Getty
South Africa 2010 was marked by Maradona's follies as Argentina coach. Messi played every minute of every game, failing to score (but assisting plenty in a deeper playmaking role) and crashed out again in the quarterfinals, again to Germany.

Then there was Brazil 2014. By now, he had the captain's armband and despite arriving at the World Cup carrying an injury, loaded the Albiceleste on his back through the group stage and into the final, where they succumbed to -- who else? -- Germany. Of little consolation, Messi was awarded the Golden Ball for best player in the tournament.


Lionel Messi crumbles to the pitch after Argentina lose to France in the World Cup round of 16. Getty
Now this World Cup. Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli has replicated the chaos of the 2010 edition, with the minor difference that he isn't an icon like Maradona, and therefore every mistake has been amplified and magnified. Maybe Sampaoli will be the scapegoat -- like Maradona was in 2010, albeit after the fact -- or maybe we'll simply accept that this isn't a great generation of Argentine players.

Yet deep down Messi must know -- in the way that footballers who are honest with themselves know -- that his missed penalty against Iceland and his nonexistent performance against Croatia are the reason Nigeria became a must-win game. Sampaoli has his responsibilities, sure, but so does the guy who proves to be human when for the longest time he performed as if superhuman. Argentina managed to beat Nigeria dramatically, 2-1, with a goal from Messi. There was hope, until France -- and Kylian Mbappe, the World Cup's new sensation -- had different ideas.

The inquest will begin, with arguments on both sides. Reaching four major finals -- losing two of them on penalties and one in extra-time -- won't convince those who say he ought to have done more for his country. In his heart -- because athletes on his level are often, at least privately, their own harshest critics - Messi may second-guess himself, particularly in this tournament.

When he was younger, his loyalty -- even his patriotism -- was called into question by some in Argentina. That's what happens when you leave at 13 and achieve more with your club than with your country.

Questioning Messi's love for his nation is, of course, silly, particularly when you consider the times he played hurt and the times he took a public stand (witness his brief retirement in protest against the chaos at the Argentina FA after the 2016 Copa America). Yet that, too, is part of the narrative.

If there is one easy conclusion to make it's this: winning when you're part of a perennially well-resourced and organized framework like he enjoys at Barcelona is a whole heck of a lot easier. It's not just about getting your tactical instructions from Pep Guardiola rather than Maradona or the fact that if you need a central midfielder you can buy an Ivan Rakitic rather than being forced to make do with a Lucas Biglia.
It's the fact that, maybe more than most, chaos and instability don't suit him.

Think back to what was, arguably, Messi's worst performance before the Croatia match: the Champions League second leg against Roma in April, when Barcelona contrived to squander a 4-1 first leg lead and lose 3-0. There, too, you can shift blame to the manager for his tactics, praise the opposition for raising their game, celebrate the magical unpredictability of the sport. But there is no denying a woeful, absent, listless performance from Messi, either.
It happens, many said. He's entitled a day off. The problem is that as you age, nights like Rome and Nizhny Novgorod risk becoming more frequent.
That's time for you. Rocky Balboa was right: Time is undefeated.

Messi can't make time stop for him. But maybe, just maybe, he can make it slow down.
Maybe he can take a mulligan and have another crack in 2022. For his own benefit, for those who love to watch him play and to shut up all those who judged a man by medals won in July, rather than by actions performed over a lifetime.

 

First, Lionel Messi. Then, Cristiano Ronaldo.

In a matter of hours Saturday, soccer's biggest names were knocked out of the World Cup, ousted by better opponents and overshadowed by players of immense ability. Their tournaments ended in the round of 16, an appropriate exit ramp for underwhelming sides that were overly dependent on their superstars. Had they both prevailed, they would have collided Friday in the quarterfinals, reprising their epic Barcelona-Real Madrid showdowns. Instead, both are done, not only with this year's competition but probably with the World Cup forever. By the time it's held again, in winter 2022 in Qatar, Messi will be 35 years old, Ronaldo almost 38. Messi has been to the final (2014); Ronaldo made a semifinal (2006). Neither will be defined by World Cup performance; they are masters in their generation at the ultimate levels of professional soccer. Shortcomings on this stage, in an event held every four years, will not detract from their weekly greatness.

Messi and Argentina were fortunate to escape group play, needing a late goal by Marcos Rojo against Nigeria to overcome a tumultuous two weeks and avoid terrible embarrassment.

Ronaldo was awesome in the opener, recording a hat trick against Spain that he culminated with a magnificent free kick in the waning moments. He scored again in his second outing, but it became clear that Portugal was not diverse enough to go much further.

In Argentina's defeat, many in the Kazan crowd saluted No. 10 in blue as he left the match for a substitute. Except it wasn't Messi, but his counterpart wearing that uniform number, France's Kylian Mbappe, a 19-year-old forward who had wrecked Argentina all afternoon with his speed and scoring prowess.

Mbappe drew a penalty kick in the first half - converted by Antoine Griezmann - when he raced some 60 yards and pulled away from three pursuers before being taken down in the box.

Midway through the second half, he shattered a 2-2 tie by scoring twice in four minutes to send France to a fully deserved quarterfinal date against Uruguay.

A passing of the superstar's torch? In some ways. Aside from his national team rise, Mbappe starred at Monaco before moving on loan to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.

Messi has a lot of soccer left in him. The World Cup is not the be all and end all. La Liga titles and UEFA Champions League trophies remain on his Barcelona agenda.

Even if age doesn't stop him, he might be done with the national team. Two summers ago, frustrated by the Argentine federation, he retired from international soccer, then reversed course.

The national team's problems here in Russia - stagnant play, paucity of ideas and reports of Messi formulating lineups and strategy amid discontent with Coach Jorge Sampaoli - seem likely to trigger a permanent departure. He's been to four World Cups; that's enough.

Like Messi, Ronaldo will continue to perform at ungodly levels every weekend in Spain. Portugal won the European Championship in 2016 but wasn't going to last long here. He was terrific; his supporting cast was not.

On Saturday, the star of the show was Edinson Cavani, Mbappe's teammate at Paris Saint-Germain. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who follows the European club circuits closely. Cavani, 31, has scored 110 goals in five French seasons with Ligue 1 titan PSG.

Eight years ago, he and strike partner Luis Suarez were members of the Uruguayan squad that advanced to the semifinals - an astounding feat in modern soccer for a country of some 3 million.

Cavani's first goal Saturday came through combination play, but not a typical exchange in tight quarters.

With possession 35 yards from the target, he lashed a cross-field pass to Suarez. Isolated with one defender, Suarez drew the attention of others protecting the penalty area.

With one forward creating distractions, the other, Cavani, discreetly drifted into a defender's blind spot. Eye contact engaged, Suarez delivered a sublime cross to the unmarked Cavani, who headed the ball into the near side of the net.

Cavani has Suarez, and vice versa. Ronaldo has no such partnership.

Portugal did respond early in the second half, Raphael Guerreiro crossing to Pepe for an eight-yard header. But Cavani was at it again in the 62nd minute on a sequence that began with a mundane action (a free kick from Uruguay's penalty area) and ended seconds later 100-plus yards downfield with an exquisite goal.

Rodrigo Bentancour squared the ball across the top of the penalty area and into Cavani's path. You could see what was coming. He's a goal scorer; his instincts tell him to go for goal.

And so he pivoted his body, selected the one spot he knew goalkeeper Rui Patricio could not protect and one-timed an 18-yard shot with pace and accuracy to the far low corner.

Of the victory, Cavani said: "I am happy, happy, happy. Look at the people [in the stadium], the way they're celebrating. We have to keep on dreaming."

Cavani's night would end 10 minutes later, betrayed by a calf injury. He will have five days to recuperate.

Next stop: Nizhny Novgorod. Mbappe will join him there. Messi and Ronaldo will be on a beach somewhere, 12 years of World Cup dreams unfulfilled.