Two-time European champion and Premier League winner, legendary coach Brian Clough was asked which title of his Nottingham Forest he considered most important. In his own way, it surprised: he named the 1977 Anglo-Scottish Cup. An obscure tournament, created in 1975 and ended six years later.
Clough had an explanation:
“It was our first trophy, and you need to learn to win. Winning is a habit.”
Lionel Messi and Argentina want to put this into practice this Wednesday (1st). At 16:00 (BrasÃlia time), the team faces Italy, at Wembley Stadium, in England, in the first match between the champions of the Copa América and the Eurocup.
The match was born from an agreement between Uefa and Conmebol and was called “FinalÃssima”. In Brazil, it will be broadcast by ESPN and Star +.
“Having achieved something with the national team after so many sad summers of lost finals… The happiness was complete,” Messi said in an interview this week for Argentine channel TyC.
Argentina won a title in 2021 after 28 years of waiting. He lifted the Copa America trophy at Maracanã by defeating the Brazilian team 1-0. It was a relief for shirt 10, Di MarÃa and Otamendi, the field representatives of the generation that specializes in losing decisions. It had been defeated in the 2014 World Cup finals and in the 2015 and 2016 continental tournaments.
Without going into the merits of the importance of beating Italy this Wednesday, it would be the second title in two years. And winning is a habit, as Clough would say. Even more six months before the start of the World Cup. Possibly Messi’s last World Cup. On the 24th, he will be 35 years old.
Argentina, South American champions, will be in Qatar in November. Italy, winner of the Euro Cup, does not. For the second time in a row, the team fell in the qualifiers and at home. Recalling this, Messi said it was “crazy” for the Azzurri to be absent.
It will also serve for Lionel Scaloni’s team to have something that Brazil has not been able to until now: play matches against Europeans in preparation for the World Cup. After Italy, Argentina will face Spain. In the months leading up to the 2018 World Cup there was also this clash, which foreshadowed the chaos that would be the campaign in Russia of the team then led by Jorge Sampaoli: 6-1 for the Spaniards.
Everything is very different four years later. Lionel Scaloni, a peripheral member of the Sampaoli commission, took over as coach on an interim basis and stabilized the boat. He achieved what Argentina hasn’t had since 2014 with Alejandro Sabella: a balance between defense and attack and Lionel Messi happy.
He had already said in the past that his period with Sabella had been the best with the albiceleste shirt. The 10 was also commanded by José Pekerman, Alfio Basile, Diego Maradona, Sergio Batista, Gerardo Martino, Edgardo Bauza and Jorge Sampaoli.
Argentina enters the field this Wednesday with an unbeaten run of 1,064 days. That’s 31 games without losing. The last defeat took place on July 2, 2019 to Brazil, at Mineirão, in the semifinal of the Copa América. A contested refereeing match, in which Messi accused Conmebol of having favored the home team.
Since 2002, Argentina has not done so well, in terms of morality, at a World Cup. This is not necessarily a good sign because that team from the tournament in South Korea and Japan, directed by Marcelo Bielsa, managed to be eliminated in the group stage, despite having one of the best generations in the history of football in the country.
But the moment at least gives the players, coaching staff and the team’s biggest star a chance to work in peace before the trip to Doha in November.
“It’s been a while since I’ve seen people, the press — which has been very tough in the past — speak otherwise. [da seleção], with more respect. Feeling that support is beautiful. What we are experiencing in this group after winning the Copa America is beautiful”, added Messi, who still considers the criticism of the previous generation, marked by defeats in the finals, unfair.
He also recalled that “it’s not just about winning”. But the tranquility that now celebrates in the Argentine national team shows otherwise. Even more so when it becomes a habit.
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