St Petersburg: Lionel Messi admitted to having survived the most nerve-wracking 90 minutes of his career as Marcus Rojo’s stunning finish four minutes kept his and Argentina’s World Cup hopes alive with a 2-1 win over Nigeria to reach the last 16.
“I don’t remember such suffering,” said Messi when asked if it was the most tense match of his career. “It was due to the situation and what we were playing for.”
Rojo had escaped conceding a second Nigerian penalty after a controversial VAR review before he got the winning goal to send the under-fire Jorge Sampaoli running down the sidelines amid wild scenes of celebration.
“After the penalty we got a little nervous and worried about not getting through,” said Sampaoli. “We were obviously delighted at the end. The players played with their heart, they are rebels, they have achieved a very important victory looking to the future.”
Sampaoli made five changes from the Croatia game, and his plan to use Ever Banega to help free up Messi worked to perfection early on. The Sevilla playmaker’s brilliant pass helped Messi to score the first goal.
“We need to make passes to Leo so he can create chances,” informed Sampaoli. “If not we suffer, we know we have the best player in the world and we have to benefit from that. It is for that reason I said after the Croatia match, it was our fault not his.”
The presence of Banega and a very hard-working Javier Mascherano liberated Messi to operate freely. Higuain just could not flick the ball off a Messi pass beyond the onrushing Francis Uzoho before Uzoho then tipped a Messi free-kick onto the post.
“It is for me to deliver and I am happy that I could come good on a day Argentina needed a win,” Messi said. “But then there is still a lot of work to be done.”
There was further VAR controversy when Nigeria were denied a second penalty as Rojo headed onto his own arm before substitute Odion Ighalo fired wide.
“I don’t understand how that wasn’t a penalty. For me it was a clear penalty,” said Nigeria captain John Obi Mikel. “Maybe the referee has given the first one and he doesn’t want to give the second one.”