Nicolás Tagliafico on the World Cup final: “I didn’t know I was playing”

By
Roy Nemer
-
79

Nicolás Tagliafico spoke about the World Cup final, stating that he didn’t know he was playing.

Tagliafico started the World Cup final for Argentina and put in a stellar performance as they lifted the trophy. He would start the semi final and final for the Argentina national team in place of Marcos Acuña but it was Acuna who was set to start the final.

The original early reports had Acuña in the eleven vs. France but about an hour and a half before kick off, it was Tagliafico’s name on the team sheet. Speaking in an interview, streaming with AFA Estudio, here is what he had to say:

“We got to the team talk and I didn’t know that I was playing. I thought it was el huevo (Marcos Acuña). I saw my name and my eyes opened up. I still haven’t realized what we have achieved, I think it was the best final ever.”

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79 Comments

  1. Please i want Ninja turtle and his fans and all the European media to continue crying. Man the pleasure is so good and big that arrive to be similar close to sex.
    Please people continue. i feel so horny !!! Don t stop !!!

  2. After the end of our game vs France in 2018, the players were chanting “He [Kante] is little, he’s sweet, he stopped Leo Messi”……Their only aim was mocking Messi.
    A few months ago Mbappe provoked the entire Latin American countries. Dibu gave them their own medicine. That’s fine.

  3. Regarding Emi, nor matter what he does, we will always have critics. It just happens to be him at the moment. If it wasn’t Emi, they would say Argentina cheated to win the world cup, or that the world cup was rigged for Messi.
    This happens only because of the arrogance of Europeans as it relates to football. They can’t believe other countries are better than them so they criticize. The truth is, let the European nations eat shit as it relates to this. I know football is sport, but colonialism is the roots of what Europe was built off of, and so is their football nowadays. The truth is, European football is not that good if it weren’t for the hundreds of African and South American players playing in their leagues. They somehow misconstrue this with their football being good. Europe is a venue. Arabs owning the largest teams, buying South American and African players, to play in Europe. That is the real truth. So when Emi ridicules Mbappe for making ignorant comments I don’t blame him. Mbappe is a 24 year old child that doesn’t understand that his decision to play for France is a historic blow to his heritage of Nigeria and Cameroon. He could have played for either one of those countries, but he now views himself as European, while many in Europe sadly don’t. He is a Nigerian/Cameroonian man playing for France. Knowing who you are is the most important thing in life.

  4. Adil Rami can go jump in the lake…seriously what a cry baby, sour grapes

    Mbappe should have kept his mouth shut and now that we won the French have to take it on the chin and get on with it. This is is all part of sports, you play, you dare to taunt? Be ready for payback if you lose, as simple as that. It’s all part of the game, I don’t see a problem with that whatsoever. Good for Emi

    All other pundits, journalist, magazines are such prudes…many who played the game would understand Emi.

    Adil Rami also told, “He didn’t like how Argentina played in this WC, In this World Cup they gave an image of a lot of aggressiveness, evil and unfair play”

    Rami was a former defender and now pretends he never tackled, got yellows or reds? Come on dude.

    It’s how Argentina plays, we have flair and physicality, two sides to our play.

  6. Claudio Tapia, Lionel Scaloni & his coaching, physio team – all deserve much appreciation for what they have achieved. They stepped down from their seats and worked themselves out to win it all.

  7. The top 25 greatest players of all time accoding to 90 min. (I agree completely)
    1. Lionel Messi
    2. Diego Maradona
    3. Pele
    4. Franz Beckenbauer
    5. Johan Cruyff
    6. Ronaldo
    7. Zinedine Zidane
    8. CR7
    9. Michel Platini
    10. Roberto Baggio
    11. Alfredo Di Stefano
    12. Mane Garincha
    13. Gerd Muller
    14. Paolo Maldini
    15. Ferenc Puskas
    16. Franco Baresi
    17. Zico
    18. George Best
    19. Marco Van Basten
    20. Eusebio
    21. Romario
    22. Raymond Kepa
    23. Giuseppe Meazza
    24. Bobby Charlton
    25. Ruud Gullit

    Argentina only have 2 in the top 25. The problem is they are number 1 and 2… Oh 3 and Alfredo Di Stefano

  9. i am a huge fan of dybala i love him as much as i love messi, all these years dybala been benched for a stupid reason of both plays for same position now he is the future argentina must give him starting place instead of messi and bring messi in 2nd half or otherwise watever dybala deserve to play 30-50 minutes for US
    It will be injustice to his talent if he wasnt give a proper run who is already nearing to the 30s

  11. I still can’t process that we’re the champion already.

    If you look at our penalties, some are risky too, Dybala’s, Parades’, keepers almost got it, even Messi’s Loris fell on the right side. Not to mention the last minute save …

    It’s sad to we got to get to this point. It could have been 3-0 or at worst 2-1 if Di Maria didn’t leave early.

    • There is no doubt about the team’s ability to score but the remaining problem is to preserve the advantage. Argentina should not count on luck. If luck is on France’s side, we could lose the championship when they can make it 4 -3

      • When we had more chances how you can just point that last minute save..? Messi’s shot at normal time should have gone IN..! Lautaro had 5 chances in 15 minutes..! If you say 4-3, Then We can also say we would have closed the game 3-0 or 4-0 in normal time. 4-2 or 5-2 in extra time..! Watch the game again.
        It’s not because luck on our side, all the chances won’t be converted. We had many chances than France, we completely out played them for most of the part. Our small mistakes made the score line 3-3.
        Actually when you check the whole picture, luck was on France side, they would have a humiliation in a WC final but luckily they lost only on penalties..!

        • Luck comes from both sides, not just on the side of the French team. Of course Argentina plays better and always leads. It is a well-deserved result. But let’s see at the last ball if they are luckier we will lose because time is no longer on our side. Now that we win, we can say anything. If we lost that ball, I bet most people on this forum would kill Scaloni and the team. I don’t think anyone likes the team to win that way.

  12. Adil Rami, ex France international who has Maroccoan parents starts the anti Emi zmartinez movement. He said Emi does not deserve his golden gloves. Bounou deserves it. And he said Emi is the most hated futboller in the world now.

    A lot of you don’t like what Emi did, but I do. He does not care about being liked by other than Argentina or his club fans. I mean not at all. He likes to be public enemy number one and he likes to win! He has a very strong character like a lot of others great sport players like Dennis Rodman or Anderson Silva (UFC).

    I like someone like that. He is not gathering fans but he shut up their mouth with each win.

    The best of Emi
    youtu.be/VINqWqz-NFs

    • as much as I like emi martinez I have to say He is wrong continue mocking Kylian Mbappé I totally don’t agree at all not good thing
      He just won world Cup he needs to move on

      • Agree Godin11
        His antics take the image of the whole team down. On social media and in many newspapers words like disrepectful, childish and unsportmanlike keep popping up. It is so completely unnecessary. Just enjoy the victory and respect your opponents. The Japanese team was eliminated, but their behavior afterwards is an example to all.

        • You have to understand why Emi does that. He does that to defend Messi. Do you know how rude the French people are to Messi?

          mobile.twitter.com/AlbicelesteTalk/status/1605621012149571585

          They used Messi jersey as a carpet. If anyone enters a cafe, u have to wipe off your feet there.

          That is very insulting. I understand they are upset that Messi performed badly especially last season but you can’t do that ever. On the top of that, they do king like treatment to Mbappe. So now you know that Emi does all that.

          Honestly I would do the same as what Emi did and even worse seriously. I would use Mbappe pic as toilet paper if I were him. I don’t care about being liked or hated, but they do need to eat their own shit.

      • @Godin11 this behaviour made him to keep that cool head and allowed him to get into the skin of the opponents during the penalty shootouts. He believed in his skills. He is the world champion now. Look back his career and those wasteful years in arsenal. No one heard about him during those years and ignorance he faced during those days. And now he is in the top of the world and getting that frustration out with these antics. There is nothing wrong in that for me. Mbappe mocked all South America and emi is a real Argentine and reacted exactly.

      • I think Mbappe shouldn’t have gone on that rant about the quality of South American football. That was completely uncalled for. And everyone knows that he pulls a lot of strings in the PSG team. He doesn’t like Messi, never liked him anyway, and he didn’t like the Latino circle growing within PSG that included ADM, Leo, Neymar, Paredes or even Mauro initially. Given his influence in the team(Please understand this isn’t Barca, Leo has virtually no say here), and he may have influenced Fideo’s movement from PSG. We all know about the substitution event that infuriated Mbappe, and Di Maria didn’t like the way Mbappe went about it. So, this fellow, I don’t care how good a player he is, has been disrespectful towards Argentine players and the overall South American football as well. I would agree that Emi didn’t have to console Mbappe on the field just for the sake of cameras. He could have simply shook his hand and left, because the videos which surfaced later(these leaks shouldn’t have happened in the first place) have established a bad image of him. But I think given the kind of things Mbappe has said or done(if he had a part to play for Fideo to be sidelined from PSG), then he had it coming.

    • Adil Rami also told, “He didn’t like how Argentina played in this WC, In this World Cup they gave an image of a lot of aggressiveness, evil and unfair play”

      What this guy is telling..? It will be bitter when you lose. We understand that..!
      Last WC you won..and you enjoyed..now you are sad..but don’t say like this. This is bad behaviour and childish.
      We don’t need any certificate, we are world champion.Let’s enjoy the moment.

  13. Fabrizio Romano

    @FabrizioRomano
    ·
    Follow
    🚨🇦🇷 Paris Saint-Germain reached a verbal agreement with Lionel Messi to extend the contract. It’s a verbal pact to continue together. #PSG

    No decision yet on leght of contract & salary, it will be decided in a new meeting soon.

    Al Khelaifi and Campos, working on it

    —-Good at least not MLS. Mbappe would be more selfish tho trying to prove that he is the best. Hope Mbappe is gone.

  15. Espn fc made a poll on probable winners of 2026 wc. And the vote goes for Brazil more. Most made a opinion that without messi Argentina would struggle and with a good coach Brazil can thrive. So again scaloni have a new chapter to introduce in our team and that is a little bit tricky. I wish garnacho can be a Ronaldo in playing style and follow Messi to be a team player and humbleness.

    • Messi will be there in 2026…He is going to be 3 months older than ronaldo was in 2022 WC..and this young team can achieve a lot with Messi around…he has to pick his passes and there are more scorers now than there were in 2014 or 2021 copa

      • I can understand why CR7 declining at the age of 37 (will be 38 in 3 months). His game relies heavily on athleticism, top physique, and speed. No human on earth does not lose their athleticism when above 33 years of age. Some even lost part of their athleticism at the age of 28.

        I mean think about Olympic 100 m race why Usain Bolt retired then? Because there is no way the GOAT of sprinter can compete with the younger one when he turned 28 or above. Think about NBA slam dunk contest why Michael Jordan did not win the contest when above 32? Because there is no way he could jump as high as when he was 20’s.

        With that being said, Messi does not rely on speed and athleticism that much. He relies on skills, brain, offensive awareness, vision, technique and stuff like that. So I say he can still be at his best for longer period of time than CR7.

        The only reason why someone who relies on athleticism that much like CR7 could last that long is because CR7 has good work ethic. He always takes care of his body. If he had Neymar or Ronaldo teeth life style, he would have declined 5 years ago already.

        That’s why the likes of Modric can still be one of the world best midfielders at 37 because he does not rely on athleticism either.

        Mbappe game also relies heavily on athleticism and speed like CR7. He is 24 now that’s why he is at his peak but I guarantee you that when he is 30 and above he won’t be as good as now UNLESS he changes his game a bit, not over relying on speed and athleticism.

        Dani Alves vs Rob Carlos. One relies on skills, the other one plainly on speed and acceleration. We know which one last longer.

        • I read somewhere that CR7 and Modric had a discussion where they said they would quit playing in nt if they would win the WC. Any normal guy would dream to have such a fairytale ending like Messi had with this WC. But, Messi is clearly not a normal guy, always looking for more wins and trophies. Never satisfied. That’s why he is the best in history.

  16. Argentina 3 wc victories are all in different continents.
    1978- south america
    1986- north america
    2022- Asia.
    Now only Europe is probably remaining as Africa cannot be a host continent in the near future. If we had won that 1990 wc then we would have equalled the record of winning in 4 different continents with Brazil.

  20. Did anyone get a load of Salt Bae Harassing the players for pictures on the pitch while they celebrated? The guy even grabbed the trophy and kissed and caressed it like he scored the same penalty as Montiel. What a douche nugget! 😂

  21. Just rewatched match. So glorious. We played fantasticly. Everyone was hustling.
    I wanted to mention the second penalty in extra time for France…. Should have been a hand ball on France first as a player from France knocks the ball with his hand, very obviously at that. Their hand ball was before montiels by a few seconds.
    Anyways, no matter, destiny took it’s path and we are champs again.

  22. Everytime I log on my IG and see Argentina players still celebrating with thier loved one the cities or town they from, it makes me so happy it’s realy joy to see they are very happy after those heartbroken years , no matter what you guys say about Lautaro still I like him and he is copa and world Cup winner no one can take that away from him he is already legend at the age of 25

  24. Thanks to the 50 Mundoers that took the survey!

    We need more…here’s the survey to judge the final results. I’ll keep it active for few days and then post results when the votes taper off. VAMOS CARAJO!!

    s.surveyplanet.com/ezdkuxef

    Here are the goals to refresh your memory.

    youtube.com/watch?v=1GU2r8HFVVU

  25. When I look back to 2014 final , we had a better team compared to this one as all of our strikers including Messi were in prime age and form and most of them used to play in top European clubs , our defence was much more solid back then . This team of 2022 is different in many ways compared to 2014 ; Messi of 2022 is more mature and hungry , we have a mid field that can attack and score goals. In terms of coaching Sabella and Scaloni are almost same. But to me if I have to single out one thing , just one key element –that got our success this time , it is Emi Martinez. He single handedly made the ultimate difference.

    • Sabella took off Lavezzi. Till that substitution we were the better team. Scaloni took off Di Maria, the best man on the pitch. With Acuna we had 2 left backs and the threat on the left was gone. So more similarities than we wished for. This time it ended well.

    • Midfield is the most important aspect. In 2014, we missed creative midfield. That is always the answer. 2022, we have a midfield that can score, be creative, dribble, and defend. Do you see the tackles Enzo, MacAllister, and DePaul can make? When they steal the ball look how quickly they move it. Sorry guys Mascherano was 1 or 2 dimensional (defending and passing)

      We have basically 3 Redondos on the field that can become Riquelme and go for a goal (4Dimensional -tackles, passing, scoring, dribbling).

      This is the most modern midfield we’ve ever had. The old creative midfield was not willing to press or defend (Pastore, Riquelme, etc.)

      The only thing we are missing is faster defenders. I thought this defense would be good, but they are not strong like 2014 – I put respect on Garay’s name – he’s still the defender that I never panic for. He makes me at ease. Otamendi my gosh, I always fear yellow or red. And to think he could have gotten red for that penalty he gave up, then he gets saved by Emi. Luck was on our side.

      • Very accurate analysis. Our starting midfielders are awesome. I think the first half of the final saw the best domination at the highest level in modern football and our midfield is the main reason for it. Depaul is unsung hero with 3 lungs. Enzo and Alexis are confirmed world class!

    • He is ok! He is Varsilan so obviously he is bias. He predicted we would lose to Semi to his team then after his team got kicked out he said we will lose to France as he didn’t see Argentina can beat France 🙄🙄

    • Tim vickery is alright he likes Brazil more and it’s ok he lives there in long time but he is happy that Argentina won world Cup cuz all mainstream media come to him when it comes to South America football and i guess he making bit of money now because of Argentine been world champion

    • He comes off as pro-Brazil when he speaks/writes. But quite objective in his analysis. So I think he’s OK. Better than 99% of the clueless journalist from the English speaking countries.

    • I have followed Tim Vickery over 20 years. He is Brazilian, lives there. Long time BBC correspondent for Latin American football.

      He has a very strong grasp of the culture and football of all the Latin countries. Very objective and very knowledge.

      He is quite open minded and fair. It’s ok to support Brazil or say France or Brazil are favorites over us. We did very well to win this. Beat the best in the final.

      • Bro you spot on and totally I agree with you but Tim vickery is English tottenham supporter who is reside in Brazil i guess he holds Brazilian passport too not sure though

      • I understand what you saying however I found his writting biased so many times. It’s only recently he said few good lines about Argentina. He is English but lived in Brasil for long period

    • Brit who lives in Brazil. Hence he can’t be in love with Argentina. Considering that, i think guy is ok. Used to ridicule our NT for long. But post Maracana has slowly changed his views & now accepts Messiah. He is more famous bcos he is. bBC Sports ‘s South American face. ESPN panel was the set of jokers imo. Serves them right for the shitload they kept talking. All their analysis is finally worth toilet paper.

  27. One thing for sure, EVERYBODY that played, played their asses off, some had better games than others but came through when in counted.
    Lautaro was a STAR in the qualifiers and should get back to normal with playing time, Papu’s time in done, and I have to assume Di Maria will stick around if Messi decides to stay as he said.
    The future if VERY bright, young talent everywhere you look and in all positions, That 10000Ibs Gorilla is off the team’s shoulders, the pressure went from unbearable to nice and very manageable.

    First thing I did when ARG won Copa last year was to change my phone wallpaper and locked screen, had Messi’s jersey and him holding the trophy…….Sunday night I changed it to what I’ve been fantasying about for what seems forever, him kissing the WC trophy and the other surrounded by teammates and family while on KUn’s shoulders.
    Been checking the phone whenever I wake up and its true, ARGENTINA ARE WORLD CUP CHAMPIONS.

  29. So we just beat:
    Brazil, Italy, Netherlands, Croatia, and France.

    Enzo got the best out of:
    De Jong, Modric/Brozovic/Kovacic, Tchouameni, Rabiot, Camavinga. All World class midfielders.

    Emi won the best goalie of the 3 major tournaments beating:
    Ederson, Donnarumma, Livakovic, Lloris, Bounou, Alisson, Nauer, Courtouis. All world class goalies.

    Scaloni outcoached:
    Tite, Mancini, Van Gaal, Dalic, and Deschamps. All world class coaches.

    How will they face us now? From A to Z, they are beaten. Even in the expected goals, they all lost meaning that we are the deserved winner. Based on the age and talents, the one that will look the most dangerous among our rival is France again. But we are ready for them.

    I read that Portugal offer the head coach job to Louis Van Gaal and he seems to be interested and would like to team up with CR7. Good luck.

    • He was not bad, better than Acuna, but I would have preferred him to be substituted with Licha and switch it to 3-5-2. Double left fullbacks not really needed as France mostly attacked from the left. With 3-5-2, Romero would have focused more to defend the right side.

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