“He runs little”: Messi’s description of the Croatian coach who recalled Louis van Gaal

In the press conference before the semifinal against Argentina, the Croatian coach zlatko dalic he spoke at a press conference and of course they asked him for information Lionel Messiof the great Qatar World Cup 2022.

Dalic, who assured that in case of victory “it will be the most important match in our history”, complimented the Argentine captain a lot, but also left a description of his match which recalled Louis van Gaal’s comments which acted as a motivation for Messi and the Argentina national team.

“Argentina is a great team, with Messi at the helm. We know what they can do, with a high-level Messi and a team that dies on the pitch. I think they have more pressure than us,” said the coach, who also led the Croatian side as they finished as runners-up at Russia 2018, where Croatia beat Argentina 3-0 in the group stage.

And then, speaking of Lio’s defensive side, Dalic threw: “He doesn’t run much, he doesn’t even run after the ball.”

“Wait and receive with all your strength and energy. He doesn’t defend and we mustn’t let him receive the ball because that’s when he does the most damagesince he is the best player in the world for the last ten years” he detailed, scoring

Zalic, who previously called Messi “the best player of the past decade”, also ruled out putting a man from his team to watch the 10 throughout the match. “Personal branding doesn’t work, we didn’t do it last time and we won’t do it now. We have to cover his passes and reduce the spaces for him,” assured the coach.

“Certainly the last defeat in Russia will have motivated him too, so we expect to face a very good version of Argentina. We expect a difficult and motivated opponent again. They have an army of fans here in Qatar.”Zalic added, confident with his team.

The Croatian’s statements about Messi are immediately linked to the criticisms disguised as praise from the Dutch coach who have annoyed the Argentine player so much. “He is the most dangerous player, the one who creates the most chances and scores them himself, but on the other hand Play little when the opponent has ball possession. There are also our chances”, said Van Gaal in the preview of the round of 16 match.

And then he would add more piquantly: “He is a player who can decide a game in an individual action. In the semi-final we played against Argentina in 2014, he didn’t touch a ball and we lost on penalties. Now we want our revenge.”

It ended in anger from Messi, who responded on the pitch, scoring Nahuel Molina’s brilliant assist in the first goal and then scoring from a penalty, which he celebrated by imitating Juan Román Riquelme’s Topo Gigio by looking directly at the Dutch bench.

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