Doha: With Lionel Messi grabbing the spotlight after Argentina’s World Cup title triumph, coach Lionel Scaloni praised all his players for their fighting spirit to make the success possible in Qatar.
Argentina won the epic final, beating France 4-2 on penalties after a nail-biting 3-3 draw in full time at the Lusail Stadium on Sunday, sealing the third world title and first since the famous triumph led by Diego Maradona in 1986.
Argentina were leading 2-0 through Messi and Angel Di Maria’s first half goals after a dominant start in the final before France staged a late fightback with Kylian Mbappe scoring a 97-second brace to level the score nine minutes before normal time.
La Albiceleste went ahead again in extra time with Messi’s second goal before Mbappe completed his hat-trick with a strike from the spot two minutes before time to take the game to penalties.
Scaloni said the players “broke their backs” in a tough match to ensure the title for Argentina.
“We have fighters who were very strong despite the goals that we conceded,” the Argentina coach told reporters after the final.
“These players play for their people, play for Argentina fans -- that’s what I have always seen. There are no egos, there are no individuals, everyone pulls together. It’s for the Argentina team and for the country,” he added.
“The players broke their backs. They have achieved this today because they understand what they had to do on the pitch and we are happy and proud.”
Scaloni said he wanted to win the match in regulation time after Argentina had full control against France for the best part of the match.
“As a coach, I’m left with the bitter taste of having played a great game, we could have wrapped it up in normal time. We didn’t get that luck.”
“We’re happy, and maybe it doesn’t matter how you become champions. I think it is, that today we’re champions, and even if it was on penalties, we are worthy champions. We played a very complete game. They only caused us problems on a few occasions.”
Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez made a brilliant last-minute save in extra time to deny Randal Kolo Muani before blocking Kingsley Coman’s strike during the shootout to play crucial role in Argentina’s win in the nerve-wrecking final.
Scaloni was impressed with Martinez’s resolve and his words of encouragement for the players before the shootout.
“He was very positive. He told his teammates he was going to save some penalties and then we had so many players ready and willing to take penalties.”
The 44-year-old, who also led Argentina to Copa America title last year, said he will look to bring improvement in the team.
“We need to go on. It may look strange, we are celebrating,” said Scaloni.
“The job of a manager is to keep improving. I’ll re-watch the matches, some in particular, because I’ll think we needed to close it earlier or why didn’t we do that. It’s about analysing football and looking where we can improve. That’s most important,” he added.
