DOHA, Qatar (AP) — Australia’s players speak in glowing, almost reverential terms about Lionel Messi.
“He just does things that, you know, no one else can do,” forward Mathew Leckie said.
Milos Degenek went even further. “Probably,” the Socceroos defender said, “the best footballer ever to grace the game.”
Imagine, then, how they’ll be feeling on Saturday when they share the same field as Messi and his Argentina team in the last 16 of the World Cup.
These are pinch-yourself times for a group of unheralded players who were expected to be on their way home by this stage of the tournament. Yet here they are in Doha, looking to cause the latest upset in a World Cup that has been full of them — right from the moment Saudi Arabia shocked Argentina in perhaps the most unlikely win in the tournament’s 92-year history.
That set the tone for the past two weeks, during which Japan has beaten both Germany and Spain, Morocco has defeated Belgium, Tunisia has beaten France and, let’s not forget, Australia has stunned Denmark.
The Australians want to add to that list.
“No one expects us to win,” Leckie said. “So let’s shock the world.”
Don’t expect any complacency among the Argentina squad, though. Not after what transpired against Saudi Arabia during the group stage.
“We know, at the moment, everything is very difficult,” said Messi, who is bidding to win the World Cup in his fifth and likely last attempt. “All the opponents are complicated. We know it as well as anyone.”
There is a growing feeling, though, that Argentina might have come through the worst of the storm. It is only a week ago that Argentine soccer was going through a period of introspection, digesting one of its most embarrassing results ever.
Then, after an hour of its second group match against Mexico, the Albiceleste were being held 0-0 to raise the genuine prospect of a group-stage exit with a game to spare.
Now, Argentina has qualified as the winner of its group and is facing the world’s 38th-ranked nation, which is playing at this stage of the World Cup for only the second time, after 2006. Netherlands or the United States will be the opponent in the quarterfinals.
Midfielder Rodrigo de Paul suggested Friday that Argentina’s surprise loss to Saudi Arabia actually had a positive effect on the team.
“We found ourselves in a situation that we weren’t used to. It had been a while since our last defeat,” de Paul said of the end of the team’s 36-match unbeaten run. “That’s when you see the character of the team, what kind of group we are. That was the moment to rise.”
None of Argentina’s players will dare get ahead of themselves but it’s undeniable that the draw has opened up for them.
