Australia’s goalie gives Argentina the winning goal in La Albiceleste’s 2-1 win at the Ahmad bin Ali stadium in Al-Rayyan, Qatar.
This is the second game in the Round of 16. From now on if you win, you advance, and if you lose, you are out. Teams know that if they don’t win in regular time the game will go into extra time, and if there is still no winner, there will be a penalty shootout.
Argentina scored first in the 35th minute thanks to their star Lionel Messi. He received a pass in the box and curled it through and around two defenders and just out of the keeper’s reach, into the bottom left corner.
Australia would gift Argentina their second and winning goal in the 57th minute. A bad series of passes in the defense lead to Mathew Ryan, the Aussie keeper getting the ball. Now, instead of clearing it out of bounds for a throw-in or even passing it behind himself to give up a corner, he tried to try and take on the two oncoming Argentines, which was an unexpected decision from a spectator’s viewpoint.
Sure enough, the Argentines won the ball and Julián Álvarez was able to pass the ball and have it roll slowly into the net.
Australia got a goal back in the 77th minute when a wild deflection off of Argentine Enzo Fernández found its way into the bottom right corner of the goal, freezing everyone in the process.
Australia started out the game well and was able to limit their opponent’s chances. They would also have one last chance to tie the game in the dying seconds, but Emiliano Martínez did a great job cutting off the angles quickly and making the save.
If it wasn’t for keeper Mathew Ryan’s mistake the game could have headed into overtime.
As a result of the first two matches, Argentina will face the Netherlands in the Quarterfinals.
Photo: Lionel Messi – Shutterstock – user: Fabideciria – ID: 2178203663
