- Gareth O'Reilly
- Sat, Jun 21 2014
One of the World's greatest ever players Lionel Messi scored an injury time winner to crush Iran's resilience after Argentina endured a frustrating evening during their Group F clash in Belo Horizonta.
Early on Di Maria's corner caused a scare for a defensively set up Iran as Rojo managed to get on the end of the placed ball with a headed chance. However like much of Argentina's play in the opening few moments it was off target.
Argentina appeared to be struggling to deal with the pressure that comes with being gigantic favourites prior to their game with Iran. The South American squad had a poor first half hour with even Lionel Messi failing to trouble Haighighi in the Iranian goal.
Anytime the favourites did get the ball in the Iranian half, Iran made sure that they had ten players behind the ball making it extremely difficult for Argentina to break them down.
Iran were not without their own chances as Hosseini went close with less than five minutes to go till the break as he headed a corner kick marginally over the cross bar.
Argentina looked to come out with renewed energy after the break as Messi broke down the middle of the field before slipping the ball to his right to Zabaleta. The right back then cut in and tried to curl a shot into the far corner with his left foot, something that he was unsuccessful at completing.
Messi increasingly looked the most likely of players to score as he once again sprinted forward but was unable to curl his shot the right side of the far post as Iran were once again let off the hook.
Argentina were very lucky not to go behind after the hour mark when Romero was forced into a spectacular save to deny Dejagah's close range header.
With just over fifteen minutes to go it appeared like it just may not be Argentina's day as Messi struck a free kick from the edge of the box into the side netting in what was a disappointing effort from one of the world's best players.
With only 13 minutes of the 90 to go both managers opted to make changes with Lavezzi and Palacio replacing the previously favoured strike force of Aguero and Higuain.
As the clock continued to tick towards ninety Goochannejhad nearly caused pandemonium to ensue in the stands for the travelling Iran support as he broke away and on the counter attack forced Romero to once again pull off a fantastic save.
Then with the board showing four minutes of added time it was clear it was going to be a nervy wait for Iran. Just one minute into that added time Lionel Messi controlled the ball on the edge of the box with one touch before unleashing a thunderous long range curling effort into the far corner of the net to cause the stadium to erupt.
Argentina: Sergio Romero, Federico Fernandez, Ezequiel Garay, Marcos Rojo, Pablo Zabaleta; Fernando Gago, Angel Di Maria (Lucas Biglia 93), Javier Mascherano; Sergio Aguero (Ezequiel Lavezzi 77), Gonzalo Higuain (Rodrigio Palacio 77), Lionel Messi
Subs Not Used: Agusto Fernandez, Martin Demichellis, Hugo Campagnaro, Jose Basanta, Mariano Andujar, Ricardo Alvarez, Agustin Orion, Enzo Perez, Maxi Rodrgiuez
Booked: None
Iran: Alireza Haghighi, Amir Hossein Sadeqi, Jalal Hosseini, Pejman Montazeri, Mehrdad Pouladi; Ehsan Hajsafi (Reza Haghighi 88), Javad Nekounam, Andranik Teymourian; Reza Ghoochannejhad, Ashkan Dejagah (Alireza Jahnbakish 85), Masoud Shojaeo (Khosro Heidari 77)
Subs Not Used: Ghasem Hadadifar, Daniel Davari, Hashem Beykzadeh, Steven Beitashour, Karim Ansarifard, Ahmad Alenemeh, Rahman Ahmadi, Hossein Mahini, Bakhtiar Rahmani
Booked: Javad Nekounam (53), Masoud Shojaeo (73)
Referee: Milorad Mazic (Serbia)
Attendance: 57,698
Extratime.com Man Of The Match: Sergio Romero (Argentina)
