How Messi Masterclass Mangled England Hopes

England pride themselves on their physicality, so shouldn’t it have suited them to face a 39-year-old who spends most of his time walking?

Well, that’s not quite how it turned out.

Lionel Messi is less athletic compared to his younger self, but his footballing intelligence makes up for the physical drop-off.

As England conceded control of the World Cup semi-final because of their own fatigue and Thomas Tuchel’s in-game changes, veteran Messi strolled authoritatively and effectively served as Argentina’s on-field coach.

So how did Messi find and exploit England’s weaknesses to deliver victory for Argentina in Atlanta?

How Argentina gained a foothold after England’s start

In the first half, England looked to press Argentina high.

Wingers Anthony Gordon and Morgan Rogers were tasked with pressing the two Argentina central defenders – angling their bodies in a way that made finding the full-backs harder for goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez and his centre-backs, Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martínez.

For Argentina, it felt like the simpler passes were going through the middle of the pitch, but in playing these, they fell into England’s trap early on.

Jude Bellingham was positioned deeper than Argentina might have expected. Rather than leading the press, he was being asked to pay close attention to Enzo Fernandez. Declan Rice did the same with Alexis Mac Allister, and Elliot Anderson found himself paired up to Messi.

England wanted to physically bully Argentina when the World Cup holders tried to play their famously central-focused football.

The England midfield trio, showing energy early on, did well to stifle Argentina. Anderson in particular, was snappy, early to his duels, smothering Messi well.

But Messi, like Fernández and Mac Allister, began to grow into the game.

Argentina’s captain started to take deeper positions, posing Anderson a dilemma – how far should he follow him? Messi’s walking pace, a tool of great deception, came in handy here too.

From almost a standing start, Messi would burst into life, darting towards the ball. With the defending side having to react to these sudden movements, the advantage was increasingly with Argentina, especially as England’s press faded as tiredness began to set in.

With players dropping towards the ball in this way, Argentina were able to bring the ball up the pitch as a unit and begin to gain some control.

How Messi masterclass mangled England’s hopes

England scored through Anthony Gordon in the 55th minute and held the lead for half an hour.

Fernandez struck a brilliant equaliser in the 85th minute, after Messi picked him out near the edge of the penalty area.

Lautaro Martínez then won the game in stoppage time with a header from Messi’s cross.

Between Gordon’s goal and Argentina’s equaliser, England had only 12% of the ball, which meant they spent most of the second half defending in deep positions.

It became a tussle of Argentina’s attack versus England’s defence, which lived a charmed life for a while.

Argentina persisted, though, with Messi exploiting weaknesses in England’s structure and flaws in individual players’ habits to inspire his side’s comeback.

After getting some joy against Messi in the early stages of the game, Anderson’s front-footed approach became less effective with Messi adapting on the fly to his direct opponent’s playing style.

In fact, Messi began to use Anderson’s aggression against him. He held the ball for as long as possible, drawing the 23-year-old out, before flicking the ball around the corner for team-mates in the knowledge there was now space to attack in the zone Anderson had vacated.