Nicolás Tagliafico speaks at press conference before Argentina semi final

By
Roy Nemer
-
30

Nicolás Tagliafico spoke at a press conference before Argentina’s match vs. Croatia in the semi finals of the World Cup.

Tagliafico was the player who spoke to the media before the match. Here is what he had to say about Argentina being in the semi finals:

“The feelings are very positive. We are very happy to have reached one of our objectives, to be in the top four. We are working really hard to keep our objective. We are really happy but we are thinking about the upcoming match.”

When asked about the match vs. Croatia:

“Yesterday, we analyzed how Croatia plays. We know that they have great players, with great quality in midfield. They are very good, they are also tall and they can play in the midfield, make crosses, get to the area. We will have to pay attention to the details but we will also have our own weapons and try to hurt them.

“It has been 4 years now but despite all of it, w see Croatia. They are still in the final four and that means they have done great. They are a good team, a good squad. There are some similarities but they will have different players with different characteristics. We are also a different squad. This will be a completely different match compared to what happened four years ago. I think the match will be different.

“Obviously we know what we will be facing. This is a semi final. And the opponent has great players, we have to think of what we can do to hurt them,. And we need to focus on ourselves.”

About the last few minutes of a match:

“The last minutes are decisive. If you are losing, it will break your back. You will try to have players to draw and it is not easy to work on that. A situation is completely different depending on what you are living. And obviously, we know that that can happen. Anything can happen and we may suffer, this is something we have felt in previous matches. But we have to somehow find a way so that we don’t suffer that much. We will have to try to counter attack. But these are difficult moments but the good thing is we have lived this already.”

Regarding Lionel Messi:

“He has always been like this. For us, he is our captain, our leader. He is the one pushing us, motivating us. He gives us a special advantage on the pitch, we know we have Messi. And that is a great source of motivation. We are really happy to have him and with everyone’s support, we have our players, the coaching staff, we try to work in the same direction and to achieve our dreams and to do it with Messi by our side.”

If he spoke with anyone from the Netherlands team after the match:

“I didn’t talk with any of my former team mates. When the match ended, I did approach them and say hello but we didn’t talk. But I haven’t spoken with anyone yet.”

On Lionel Scaloni’s tactics:

“Sometimes we talk about a back four, back five but that depends on the game. And that is one of the features of the national team. Depending on the players, we can change formations, systems. And that can hurt the opponent.”

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

30 Comments

  1. Argentina in fifa wc 2022
    Most goals messi 4
    Most passes de Paul 436
    Most crosses di Maria 24
    Most attempts at goal messi 25
    Most assists messi 2
    Total distance ran de Paul 52.35 km
    Most sprints de Paul 273
    Most attempted line breaks de Paul 134
    Most completed line breaks de Paul 94
    Most offers to receive de Paul 505
    Most reception between midfield and defence messi 92
    Most defensive pressure de Paul 149

  2. Without Di Maria it will be either 4-4-2 with Paredes or either 4-3-1-2 with Lautaro. Be brave Scaloni! Croatian defense is not that strong, just super lucky so far. France scored 4 against them in the final, Spain 5 in Euro and Belgium and Brazil should have at least 2-3 now. Di Maria needs perfect physical condition in the final vs France (probably). Then our clutch player could give his all.

    • I felt the same, they are lucky to reach SF. I didn’t see anything spectacular from Croatia in this World cup. Even GK was lucky to save (accidental) some shots against Brazil.

      • Attacking-wise too, in normal time: 1 vs Japan, 0 vs Brazil, Belgium and Morocco. Canada were maybe the most naive team of this WC. No way ARG wont score at least 1 goal in normal time, rather 2 imo and they wont score 2 against us. 1 is questionable too. They didnt win a single KO match since Euro 2008 in normal time.

    • Semifinal is important. There is no point saving a player for final if we can’t even reach the finals its like saving Neymar for the 5th penalty but that 5th penalty never happened. Btw against France we may have to play 5 at the back anyways

      • Why are you so sure that france will go to final. This french side is not so impressive and they are not strong as 2018. I am very confident that this Morocco will give a good fight.They are mentally prepared and united and full off confidence. We dont need to think about the final yet. think about the Semi. We need to win that game at any cost. This croatian side is not strong as 2018 and average age of thier starting 11 is older than ours. They are not so impressive but we have to be very cautious not to concede any goal. Im sure Scolani has a plan to nullify their midfield. i dont know why mundo members are so worried. Why dont we have faith in our players. Their defense is not that strong. We have players who are able to unclock thier defense at any minute, Messi, Di Maria, Alvarez, Enzo.They have only decent midfield. We are able to beat them at any given day. To be honset we are the strongest among four finalists. we have the best palyer in the world. Show me one player from Croatia who is on par with messi, not even mordic, he may be on Par with Di Maria.Any forward on par with alvarez, any midfield equal to Depaul and any defender on par with Lisandro and Cuti. We are supeior side and we have an edge over them. Scoalni knows what he is doing. why mundo members think Scolani is a dumb coach. You will never understand the pressure on the pitch when we lead by one or two goals.Every coach on this world cup has done mistakes at any point of the match. Just have some faith guys

  3. On the positive side of things (lol) Molina scoring a beautiful Golazo to open up the game and Lautaro scoring the decisive penalty should have done wonders for their confidence…
    Perhaps Scaloni can start Lautaro for his physicality (needed against Croatian defense) and see what he can do with his renewed confidence and sub in Alvarez if needed in 2H. I think ElToro will do well.

    • People who criticizes Molina all the time.. they’re just blind haters who probably views Foyth as our savior or somethin. Molina also assisted goal in WC qualfier, he assisted the opening goal against Poland.

    • About Molina you are right 100%, but I think Alvarez is way, way better than Lautaro in finishing and in collective play. @Csabalala said this before, but now I realized he was right that day.

      • I agree on you specific points on Alvarez. But situational speaking were talking about a opponent who need to match strength with strength… and Lautaro’s finishing is not inferior to Alvarez just that his self confidence was absent in this WC because he didn’t not get goal contributions thanks to Fvcking VAR.. now that he has a feel for scoring in this WC..his accuracy might come back..and his physicality might be useful.. my Opinion

        • Var did it’s job.. It’s Lautaros and the rest of the forwards fault for not fucking learning their lesson and staying onside. What a frustrating match. Although his shoulder offside was ridiculous I gotta point out

      • IMHO Lautaro at his peak is more dangerous than Alvarez. But Alvarez does not stroll in the park. He chases hard and forces the opponent defence to hurry up with their passes, which takes away some accuracy from them. Also Lautaro does not come back to defend easily and, if he does, he is either slow or messes up big time. Remember, in the Finalissimo he almost handed over a seater to Barella.

  5. The strange thing is that he has had good games but lately he has not been as expected. Either way, he puts pressure on the opponent. He can scare away opponents in attacks because so many times he comes close to scoring, which I dream of on the left wing of the team. Molina has scored so I hope he scores too. If he is the choice to replace Acuna in the next match then I wish him a great job.

  6. Sorry for the long post, but i have to spitbit out.

    Isint it ironic the Goal which took out Portugal is a goal scored by a player in a Ronaldoesque way by leaping high like CR7. His fans were always saying that no other player can score similar goal. One of the reason the CR7 was always barking was because of the physical features, He was like the Iron Man in Iron Man 2 saying, “No one else will have this technology”

    Now what is CR7 fans thinking. Will there be any other player who can leap in air like CR7. Or because EN-NESYRI scored that header goal in the quarter final of a World cup. Could he be considered as a GOAT too… 😭😭😭 does anything CR7 could have done in a football field like the Messiah who even when not scoring still assists left right. This has been always been saying for the last 15 years but no one listens. They are always looking at CR7 goals only.

    Take out the Penalties and Tapins and some physical beauty.He is empty as a football player nothing, even Balotelli who was similar to CR7 in physical fitness and he even scored key goals in Euro semis against Germany. Zlatan who is still good at 40 far better than CR7, Zlatan didnt depend on penalties and Tapins only thats why he dont have that many goals overall. How can anyone who watches football put a name like CR7 next along with Messi, Maradona, Pele, Johan Cruyff, Baggio, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Ronaldo original, Batistuta. The legends the magicians.

    CR7 should give another interview and just apollogies to his buffonry fans and ask them to follow real football players rather than following him. He is a con artist. Who was stage managed his so called buffoon fans, His PR was so good in projecting such an untalented player like him alongside a once in a lifetime player like Messi. Thats his biggest achievement. To get compared with Messi. Come on this is year 2022 with all the techologies and history in finger tip how can any one follow CR7.

  8. Much was expected from Tagli in the last match because of his experience with Ajax. He disappointed. He seems bit overwhelmed by the occasion. He had not been doing bad for Argentina coming to this tournament. His game took a bad turn. Not only he defended poorly, he could not help the attacking line and he missed chances too. Anyway he takes crazy shots from inside the opponent box. So old habits die hard. It is sad that we have no option other than him to replace Acuna. Scaloni should have thought about Licha instead of Tagli. But Licha’s height would be a big problem against the tall Croatians. Anyway, it seems Scaloni has made up his mind to send in Tagli as he has sent him in for the pre-match conference. 5-3-2 would be a disastrous formation because of the goalkeeper of Croatia, who is a better version of Emi Marinez with the penalties.

    • You have a good point. But taglafico is one inch shorter than Licha. So the height is not a determining factor. Tagla is almost as short as Messi. I know Taglia well, I’m a big fan of his. I think he is very good offensively, but has fallen short for our defense recently.

      • Very intresting to hear that about the height factor, well maybe Scaloni dont see Licha as LB ? As my personal pick for the game will be :
        DIBU
        CUTI OTA LICHA
        ADM RDP ENZO MAC MOLINA
        MESSI
        ALVAREZ

  9. I hope he realizes that he has performed like $hit so far!! Every match he played he has done nothing but errors!! He offers nothing when pressing forward and now his defending is going down the hill as well!! He is one year younger than Acuna but is slower and his reflexes and decision making is one of the worst in our team!! All I want from him is to not make any errors. Don’t pass it to opponents near the box or lose possession that results in a counter attack!! Don’t let mediocre players get the better of you!!Please!!!! Both him and Pezzella give me panic attack whenever they are subbed in. I won’t be surprised if everyone in the squad feels the same about them!

    • OMG! I truly hope this to be as false flag as i think Tagli been more than terrible and there is that game from 2018 too, right ? As wasn’t he involded with one of Crotias goal or was it not his fault at all, as for some reason i can’t teally remember that Sampa’s circus of madness any more as how hard intry to think i can only remember willy’s blunders as i quess Sampa got me off too as he did to everyone in that Cup, lol!

      Well, anyhow no matter the 2018 game, Still Licha should be there as why would they not try play so ething like this : DIBU
      CUTI OTA LICHA
      A.CORREA RDP MC ALLISTER MOLINA
      ENZO
      MESSI. ALVAREZ

      and sub in DI MARIA TO A.CORREA OR VICE VERSUS and keep Tagli as emergency only if need to sub Molina or how about this : DIBU
      . CUTI OTA LICHA
      RDP ENZO MC ALLISTER
      DI MARIA. MOLINA
      , MESSI
      ALVAREZ

    • I would not count on him nor any referee or VAR neither, the only way to win the cup is rather u score goals and do not leak any as that will be hard to compensate specially if your opponent scores first or viceversus it could very well be also as we have seen teams coming back from behind in this WC…so the best will be not to concede and if it must go penalties then it is 50-50 allways, though some goalies are better with PK’s than others , as there stat’s about everything etc., but they all have to live through that moment and therefore no predictions can be really made about PK’s even i do know there are stats for that whether from previous WC’s or from the team’s themselfs or from very player since he has been involded with PK’s etc…

Comments are closed.