“Where are the Damien Duffs? The Liam Bradys?”
Argentina are on the brink of elimination from the World Cup. The South American side lost 3-0 to Croatia on Thursday evening, to leave themselves with one point from two games at the tournament in Russia, following Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Iceland.
They now need to beat Nigeria in their final group game and hope other results go their way. It’s going to take something special to reach the last-16, and even their captain Lionel Messi couldn’t drag them past an accomplished Croatia team.
The most common criticism of Lionel Messi is completely unfair | @RobRedmond https://t.co/3gy6axksEf
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) June 21, 2018
The Barcelona forward struggled to make an impact on the match, but Argentina’s problems were too great for even Messi to overcome. Willy Caballero’s howler for Croatia’s first goal was disastrous. Argentina’s defence was slow, Javier Mascherano couldn’t get a kick of the ball against the brilliant Luka Modric in midfield, and Argentina manager Jorge Sampaoli tinkered with the team’s formation throughout. It was a disjointed and impotent display and a terrible night for Argentine football.
On RTE, Liam Brady, Damien Duff and Eamon Dunphy discussed their haphazard performance. According to Dunphy, the defeat to Croatia reflected a decline in South American football which has occurred because their best players have been “raided” by European clubs over the past two decades.
“All their players are in Europe,” Dunphy said as the RTE panel reflected on the result at full-time.
“If you don’t have idols and iconic figures in your own country, it’s going to stop people going to the game and stop people playing the game.”
You won’t get a line like that from Phil Neville on BBC. You can watch the clip here:
Where did it go wrong for Argentina? Eamon Dunphy thinks it's down to all their players being in Europe. #rtesoccer #worldcup #ARG #CRO pic.twitter.com/HKmC5fQR6I
— RTÉ Soccer (@RTEsoccer) June 21, 2018
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