Lionel Messi was named the Player of the Match as he spoke about the World Cup final.

Messi had one goal and one assist, the assist of the tournament, in Argentina’s 3-0 win vs. Croatia in the semi finals of the World Cup. Speaking to the media after the win, here is what he had to say:

“Many things went through my mind. It’s very exciting to see all of this, the people, the family. The entire World Cup was incredible, what we experienced and now we are going for the last match, which is what we wanted.

“I don’t know if it’s my best World Cup or not. I’ve been enjoying this a lot for a long time. We were confident that this group was going to pull it off. We know what we are and we ask the people to believe in us.

“We have been through tough situations, other very good ones. Today, we are living something spectacular. I’m enjoying it with all of these people and all the Argentines that are in our country. I imagine it has to be crazy.

“We knew were not the top favorites but we were not going to gift anyone anything. We showed it match by match.”

Argentina will play the final of the World Cup!

Lionel Messi and Argentina will play all seven matches at the World Cup and the last one being the final. A match which was tight at the beginning, it took Julián Álvarez to be taken down in the penalty area by the Croatian goalkeeper and Argentina were awarded a penalty kick.

It was Lionel Messi who took it and Messi scored to give Argentina the 1-0 lead. Messi has now scored 11 World Cup goals, the most ever by an Argentine.

Julián Álvarez would score one of the goals of the World Cup. It was Nicolás Otamendi who won a header, Lionel Messi flicked it and passed it to Álvarez who ran the length of Croatia’s pitch and scored.

The Lionel Messi show was truly one in the second half. A run only Lionel Messi is capable of making, he ran down the wing into the penalty area, dribbling around the Croatian players and he would pass it to Alvarez who would score to give Argentina the 3-0 lead.

And Argentina are in the World Cup final!

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has his eleven players which will start the match vs. Croatia in the semi finals of the World Cup.

Scaloni has made a few changes to the team which won the penalty shootout. Nicolás Tagliafico starts in place of the suspended Marcos Acuña.

Leandro Paredes also starts with Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister. Up front, it’s Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez with Ángel Di María on the bench. Here is the starting eleven:

Emiliano Martínez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Taglafico; De Paul, Enzo Fernández, Paredes, Mac Allister; Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni held a training session on Monday before the team’s match vs. Croatia in the semi finals of the World Cup.

Lionel Scaloni will be without both Marcos Acuña and Gonzalo Montiel for the match as they are both suspended and were not part of the eleven in training. Nicolás Tagliafico spoke at a press conference before the training and he was the left back when the team trained on Monday.

Nahuel Molina, who scored vs. Netherlands in the penalty shootout win was the right back. It was Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández and Alexis Mac Allister with Lionel Messi, Julián Álvarez and Ángel Di María.

Scaloni also tried Leandro Paredes during training as he had substituted Ángel Di María. According to TyC Sports, this was the eleven from training:

Emiliano Martínez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico; Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister, Lionel Messi Julián Álvarez and Ángel Di María