Doha, Qatar — Lionel Messi He said he was “outraged” by his penalty miss in Argentinais against Group C polandbut praised his teammates for the positive response, which saw South American champion Seal 2-0 win to book a round of 16 against Australia,
Argentina, who lost their World Cup opener Saudi ArabTop their group after second-half goals Alexis McAllister and Julián Álvarez netted them a 2–0 win over Poland.
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After starting the game in second place and needing to win to ensure qualification, Argentina’s hopes were dashed by the Poland keeper wojciech szczesny Messi’s 39th minute penalty saved.
However, a 46th-minute goal by McAllister put Argentina on course to victory, and Messi said he never doubted that Argentina would win, despite missing the spot kick.
Messi said, “I am angry for missing the penalty. But after my mistake, the team became stronger.”
“The team was convinced we were going to win, it was just a matter of scoring the first goal. After that, the rest of the game played the way we wanted.”
McAllister, Alvarez and enzo fernandez Everyone made a big contribution to Argentina and eased the burden on Messi.
Messi said, “We have said from the beginning that the player who has to come knows what he has to do and he is always perfectly prepared.” “The strength of this group is unity and everyone answered the call.”
Argentina will now face Australia at El Rayan on Saturday, with coach Lionel Scaloni saying he cannot understand the quick turnaround between games.
“It’s almost 2 a.m. Thursday now and we have to play again on Saturday,” Scaloni said. “I don’t understand it, but we just have to prepare our best.”
Despite being strong favorites to beat Australia and book a quarter final tie against Australia United States of america either NetherlandsMessi said the 2-1 defeat against Saudi Arabia would serve as a warning to Argentina to avoid complacency.
“I’ve learned a lot since we started [the World Cup] With a defeat,” Messi said. “It was a bad start, everyone was disappointed and worried.
“Let’s take it easy, we need to take that approach. Hopefully we can continue to play like we did today and do our best.”
