Qatar 2022: a voodoo doll, the Australian press’s method to “bewitch” Lionel Messi

In Australia they know. The favorites of today’s crossing for the round of 16 of the Qatar 2002 World Cup is Argentina. And, as always, all the flashes point to Lionel Messi. For this reason, the press of the oceanic country has resorted to different methods to “pierce” the captain of La Scaloneta.

With a pinch of humor and another of irony -o mufa- the Saturday edition of the newspaper The Western Australian showed on the cover a drawing that pretended to be a doll of the captain of Rosario pricked with pins. The famous black magic, better known as gualic in these lands.

“Help ‘punch’ Messi”, It reads very large in the title. Another text, with a yellow background, explains the illustration: “Yes… we used a voodoo doll to help our footballers beat the greatest of all time”.

Not only that, but they asked for help from the readers themselves to copy the method and that energy to affect this afternoon’s game, already night in Qatar and early Sunday morning for them.

“To even the odds, The Western Australian urges readers to stick pins into the Messi voodoo doll on the front page of the Saturday paper to help our Socceroos beat the greatest of all time. That might be enough to code your goal scoring radar!” they exclaimed of Rosario’s star player who will play his 1,000th professional match.

It is that, they also explain on the cover, “after all, they face not only the third-ranked team in the world, but also Lionel Messi, perhaps the best player of all time”.

In addition, they showed a smaller image of the PSG figure, this time without any witchcraft retouching, but with text insisting on witchcraft: “To beat Argentina, you won’t just need a little luck, but also a little magic”. .”

The ball will start rolling in the early hours of the Australian morning. At that point, both the Albiceleste and the Socceroos will know which team awaits them in the quarter-finals: the Netherlands or the United States.

It’s clear. Australia has nothing to lose against Argentina and everything to win. it is a selection no famous people and with a squad whose total price is around 38 million euros, against the 645 that Argentine players are worth.

It is in his humility and team spirit that he can become strong. And this is where their coach Graham Arnold is aiming, a former striker who played for Australia in the historic play-off against Argentina in 1993, the only “world” history between the two teams.

Australia, who managed to qualify for the round of 16 for the second time in their history, was one of the big surprises of the group stage. In his area, he started stung. The favorites were France, who qualified first, and Denmark, one of the great disappointments of the World Cup, who finished last with just one point.

He made his debut in Qatar with a sensational victory against (4-1) the last world champions, but then managed to keep the goal clean and chain two 1-0 successes against Tunisia and Denmark.

His game doesn’t present major complications: he became solid in defence, bet on the counterattack and paid off. The stationary ball is another of his weapons. Everything indicates that he will do the same against Argentina.