The phrase Lionel Messi used to Wout Weghorst in the tunnel after Argentina progressed to the semi-finals has already been turned into merchandise in Argentina.
For about £10, football fans in Buenos Aires can go online and buy a T-shirt with the words: ‘What are you looking at stupid? Clear off.’
Messi’s outburst to Netherlands forward Weghorst in that live-on-air Argentinian television interview on Friday night came after the ill-tempered penalty shootout.
Lionel Messi has found his mean streak – as seen by his response to Wout Weghorst on live TV
‘He was disrespectful and I’m really disappointed,’ said Weghorst, who claimed he only wanted to shake Messi’s hand.
In Argentina there is no such disappointment — this was Messi in full Diego Maradona mode. The player once teased in his homeland for being a pea-heart in comparison, has turned into Braveheart, and he is leading a somewhat unlikely looking Argentina into Tuesday’s last-four meeting with Croatia.
Lionel Scaloni’s team is built, not just on Messi’s brilliance, but on two Premier League stars who for all that they impress for their club, would not have been on many people’s ones-to-watch list before the tournament began.
Midfielder Alexis Mac Allister will go back to Brighton once the tournament ends and goalkeeper Emi Martinez will be on the same flight, bound for Aston Villa.
In the shootout against the Netherlands, Emi Martinez had done his best to wind-up the Dutch penalty takers and their goalkeeper Andries Noppert and the Argentine produced two brilliant strong-arm saves to see his team through.
Messi was not happy with how the Holland team and staff acted throughout the quarter-final
When Lautaro Martinez scored the winning spot-kick the entire Argentine team ran to him, bar Messi, who went straight to embrace the Villa goalkeeper.
Emi Martinez took his lead from Messi in the post-match interviews too. ‘The referee was giving everything for them,’ he said. ‘He wanted them to score. Hopefully we don’t have him any more, he’s useless.’
Mac Allister meanwhile has come from nowhere to establish himself as first choice and the absence of any weight of expectation has reflected on his performances. ‘I’m usually very nervous before games but at this World Cup that just hasn’t happened,’ he said.
He would not have got his chance had Argentina not lost their opener to Saudi Arabia. He might not have even made the squad had former Tottenham midfielder Giovani Lo Celso not missed out through injury.
But he has taken his chance and TyC Sports in Argentina have dubbed him ‘Messi’s silent partner’ — a player who can win the ball back and give it simple to his captain. Player for player this is not a great Argentina side. Coach Scaloni has Walter Samuel, Roberto Ayala and Pablo Aimar in his technical staff and none of them in their prime would have struggled to get into the current XI.
Emiliano Martinez was a hero for Argentina in their penalty shootout victory against Holland
But, as the 35-game undefeated run they came into the tournament with showed, they are greater than the sum of their parts and Mac Allister and goalkeeper Martinez are proving to be superb supporting actors.
Scaloni will need to call upon more strength in reserve on Tuesday with full backs Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel suspended. Nicolas Tagliafico will come in at left wing-back to what may well be a back five again, with Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez, Cristian Romero of Tottenham and Nicolas Otamendi, once of Manchester City, as centre backs.
The 5-3-2 will be abandoned for a 4-3-3 if Angel Di Maria is fit to return but the feeling around the Argentina camp, reflected in the way he could only manage eight minutes of extra time in the quarter-final, is that if he is going to play through an injury it is better that he does it in the final.
Brighton’s Alexis Mac Allister has been a superb supporting actor for Argentina so far in Qatar
Argentina have struggled in every game so far. Tagliafico spoke of the pressure on the players having been eased by the Copa America win last year, but the nature of their stuttering progress has piled it back on.
‘We hadn’t won anything in a long time,’ said the Lyon full back of that Copa America win. ‘For players like Leo and Di Maria, who had reached finals and not won, it was the best thing that could have happened.’
It will become the second best thing for Messi and Di Maria if Argentina can get past Croatia and win another final.
The captain’s newly discovered mean streak and the contribution of Mac Allister and Emi Martinez will have been huge reasons why.
Messi and Argentina now face Croatia as they look to secure a place in the World Cup final