Scaloni recalled Qatar 2022: “Having Messi is the magic recipe, I won the title for him”

Lionel Scaloni appeared at the Coaches Forum organized by FIFA in Qatar, along with all the technical directors who were part of the World Cup and highlighted Messi’s participation: “Having Messi is the magic recipe, I won the title for him and not him for me, that’s the key.” Any coach would like to have a player like him. It would be necessary to put him in conditions that he can squeeze his football, that he feels comfortable on a field, “said the world champion coach and stressed that “if you have Messi it is undoubtedly that you have to play in a certain way to get results. ” In addition, he continued with the praise for La Pulga: “Messi is the flagship that everyone looks at, it is a pleasure to play football with him. The captains of the National Team were always good, this one is unique, unrepeatable”. In this context, he reviewed the development of the World Cup and congratulated the organization in an interview with Alkass Sport Channels: “First I want to congratulate Qatar and the organization; I had the opportunity to play in a World Cup in Germany, be a field assistant in Russia and be a coach in the last one. For me the one in Qatar has been the best: a lot of comfort in travel, very close displacements, everything very well organized. My family was able to be here watching the World Cup for almost a month and they were very happy. It’s the best World Cup we could have seen and beyond Argentina winning, it was spectacular.” In reference to Argentina’s first match, which was a defeat against Saudi Arabia, he recalled: “Argentina deserved to win the game, the statistics were favorable. Arabia won us, congratulations to them and we can’t think of anything other than congratulating them.” In the review, he continued for Mexico, one of the most emotionally charged matches: “The situation was difficult, knowing that we could not err because we had to win yes or yes. At halftime the match was 0-0 and it was an important breaking point. Leo’s goal opened the door for everything that was coming.” Finally, he spoke about the final with France: “I think that the games are not finished until the referee says that it is over. With these players and at this level, one minute is an eternity. We had the experience of the match against Holland that had also happened almost the same: we were never confident that the game was won. A final that was so close involved twice as much work.” I would be lying if I said that we thought we were going to be champions, yes we were with the illusion and prepared to compete against everyone as equals. But we didn’t believe 100% that we could win it until the final instances. This is football, these things can happen, play better to the opponent, and a minute of a deconcentration can happen to you. The defeat with Saudi Arabia made us wake up and see that we could not fail anymore. We had no chance of losing another game because we were going home,” he concluded.

Original source in Spanish