Lionel Messi is 39 years old and spent most of the World Cup semi-final walking. England, a side built on physicality, should have relished facing a veteran who moves at little more than a stroll. Instead, they found themselves outthought and outmanoeuvred by a player whose footballing intelligence turned him into Argentina’s on-field coach.
As England’s energy drained in the Atlanta heat and Thomas Tuchel’s in-game changes failed to stem the tide, Messi began to exploit the weaknesses he had been patiently probing. The first half had been different. England pressed high, with wingers Anthony Gordon and Morgan Rogers closing down Argentina’s centre-backs, angling their bodies to block passes to the full-backs. Jude Bellingham sat deeper than expected, man-marking Enzo Fernandez. Declan Rice shadowed Alexis Mac Allister, and Elliot Anderson was tasked with smothering Messi.
“Lionel Messi’s walking pace deceived England as the 39-year-old orchestrated Argentina’s World Cup semi-final victory.”
For a while, it worked. Anderson was snappy, early to his duels, intercepting a pass intended for Messi in the 10th minute. England’s midfield trio stifled Argentina’s famously central-focused football, forcing goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and his centre-backs, Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez, into longer balls. But Messi, Fernandez and Mac Allister began to grow into the game.
The turning point came when Messi started dropping deeper, posing Anderson a dilemma: how far to follow him? From almost a standing start, Messi would burst into life, darting towards the ball. His walking pace, the article notes, was a tool of great deception. England’s defenders had to react to these sudden movements, and as their press faded with fatigue, the advantage swung to Argentina.
With players dropping towards the ball, Argentina brought it up the pitch as a unit and began to seize control. Messi, effectively serving as an on-field coach, strolled authoritatively and picked apart England’s structure. By the time the final whistle blew, England’s physical game had been undone by a 39-year-old who barely seemed to break a sweat.
BBC Sport football tactics correspondent Umir Irfan described it as a Messi masterclass. England’s pride in their physicality counted for nothing against a player who compensates for athletic decline with sharp-witted play. The question now is how Tuchel and his squad recover from a defeat that laid bare the limits of sheer energy against footballing genius.