Хоёр оддын замнал ижил төстэй боловч Аргентин болон Францын шигшээ багуудын тоглолтын арга барил тэс өөр байна.
Лионель Месси болон Килиан Мбаппе нар энэ удаагийн дэлхийн аваргад найман гоолтойгоор тун тэнцүүхэн өрсөлдөж байна. Атлантад Египетийн эсрэг, Фоксборо хотод Мароккогийн эсрэг тоглолтуудад Месси болон Мбаппе нар торгуулийн цохилтоо алдсан нь тэднийг эгэл хүн гэдгийг харуулсан ч удалгүй хоёул гоол оруулж, багаа ялалтад хөтөллөө. Месси хувийн асуудал болон Аргентины шигшээ багийн хүндхэн тоглолтуудын дунд сэтгэл хөдлөлөө барьж дийлэлгүй нулимс унагаж байсан бол Мбаппегийн хувьд илүү тайван, тогтвортой тоглолтыг үзүүлж байна.
Аргентинчууд Кабо-Верде болон Египетийн эсрэг тоглолтод нэмэлт цаг сунгах эсвэл хоцрогдож яваад эргэн ирэлт хийх шаардлагатай тулгарсан бол Францчууд хасагдах шатанд нэг ч гоол алдалгүй, тун итгэлтэй тоглолтыг үзүүлж байна. Мбаппегийн хувьд тэрээр бусдын амжилтад анхаарахаас илүүтэй багтаа туслах зорилготой байгаагаа илэрхийлсэн юм. Тэрээр Мароккогийн хаалганд 20 дахь гоолоо оруулж, дэлхийн аваргын түүхэнд гайхалтай амжилтыг тогтоолоо.
Францын дасгалжуулагч Дидье Дешам тоглогчдын сэтгэл зүй өндөр байгааг онцолсон бол Мбаппе тоглолтын төгсгөлд шагайндаа бага зэргийн гэмтэл авсан ч удалгүй баяр хөөрөө хуваалцсан нь ноцтой гэмтэл биш болохыг харууллаа. Месси болон Мбаппе нар хоёул хоёр дахь дэлхийн аваргын цомоо өргөхийг зорьж байгаа бөгөөд тэдний замнал одоогийн байдлаар финалд учраа таарах магадлалтай байна.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
When the World Cup holds up a mirror to Kylian Mbappe, it’s as if he sees Lionel Messi. Upon reflection, both their tournaments can appear identical. It’s uncanny. When Messi scores, Mbappe follows. It’s like Christopher Nolan’s film The Prestige. They are football’s Robert Angier and Alfred Borden. Rival magicians attempting to one-up each other. Messi matching Mbappe and vice-versa. Eight goals each as the audience gasps in astonishment. When one misses, the other does too, as if they are bound together.
In Atlanta, Messi stepped up to take a penalty against Egypt. Then, in Foxboro, Mbappe was also awarded one against Morocco. Everyone expected a goal even from Messi who failed to convert one against Austria earlier in the tournament. The goalkeepers Mostafa Shobeir and Yassine Bounou not only made saves from both of them. They made Messi and Mbappe, fleetingly, look mortal.
Alas, it didn’t last long. Messi ensured his name appeared on the halo screen at the Mercedes Benz stadium. Mbappe’s flashed up at the Gillette and Argentina and France continued to track each other on opposite sides of the bracket. For now, the former PSG teammates remain on a collision course to meet in the final as happened in Qatar four years ago when Mbappe scored a hat-trick and, somehow, Messi still prevailed.
“Leo always scores. He always has, he always will,” Mbappe said. “If I focused on watching what Leo scores, I would have to work even harder. So no, I don’t pay attention to what (Messi) does at all. I’m only thinking about helping my team.”
If Mbappe did pay closer attention, he’d notice maybe they aren’t so similar after all. Messi’s World Cup has largely been about high performance in chaos. Mbappe has, on the other hand, been able to operate in near complete serenity. Everything, particularly since the knockout stages began, has looked hard for Argentina. For France, it has been the opposite. The World Cup has, by contrast, come much easier to them.
Even if we go back to that remarkable Tuesday in June when both got their tournaments underway, Messi was portrayed as seeing what Mbappe and Erling Haaland did against Senegal and Iraq, and, to use a poker term, raising it by scoring a memorable hat-trick against Algeria in Kansas City. And yet he could have been sent off for a foul on Aissa Mandi before he even opened his account. Algeria even filed a formal complaint to FIFA. Messi got lucky. At the end of the game, he appeared to cry too.
“I’ve had some tough days,” Messi said. “It wasn’t related to football. And those feelings were because of that.” It later emerged, his father, Jorge, is “going through a health situation” and is “currently under medical supervision.”
Against Cape Verde in the Round of 32, Messi brought the ball down in the box and, quite exquisitely, gave Argentina the lead. It looked like the game would be plain-sailing. Messi was back in Miami, his second home. It was anything but. Cape Verde kept coming back. They took the game to extra-time and looked genuinely shaken when Sidny Lopes Cabral equalised again in the 103rd minute with arguably the goal of the tournament. In the end, a Diney own-goal was all that separated the two teams.
Egypt then left Argentina on the brink. Unlike the Cape Verde game, Messi and his teammates found themselves behind. His penalty would have levelled the score at 1-1. When he missed it only heightened the anxiety. His shooting was off. Until it wasn’t. Two-nil down with 10 minutes to go, Messi crossed for Romero to head one back, smashed an equaliser in off the bar and then collapsed to the ground, as Enzo Fernandez won it in the 93rd minute. Again, Messi burst into tears.
France, on the other hand, have glided through like swans. They have not been taken to extra-time. They have not conceded in the knockout stages. Mbappe, granted, has not had it all easy. Paraguay tried to kick lumps out of him. He has been subject to racial abuse from a Paraguayan senator. On the pitch, however, he has cut a peaceful figure.
Maybe it’s the talent around him and knowing France have other players like the Ousmane Dembele, the Ballon d’Or holder, who can step up, as he likes to do, seemingly, every time he plays in Foxboro. Maybe it’s the connection he has with Michael Olise. France, unlike Argentina, are a chance creation machine. They had 22 shots against Morocco. There is always another opportunity.
So when Mbappe missed his penalty, he did not appear fazed by it. “There were no doubts in the players’ heads or Kylian’s head,” Deschamps said afterwards. He found a way. He always does, curling a shot around Issa Diop and Bounou in the Morocco goal. It was his 20th at the World Cup, a remarkable record given he has played in half as many editions of this tournament as Messi.
There was a heart-in-mouth moment towards the end when Mbappe sunk to the ground and signalled for a substitution. It was a precautionary measure, a minor ankle issue, as evidenced by how much he celebrated at full-time. Mbappe danced. He jumped up and down, a flashbulb smile on his face. He did not seem anguished.
Messi and Mbappe’s experiences of this World Cup are the same but different. Similar and divergent. And yet the desired outcome is shared. Both want a second World Cup. The way they are going about will hopefully continue to absorb us for at least another week.
