Argentina rode on Angel di Maria and sheer luck to edge past a spirited Switzerland 1-0 in the round of 16 of the World Cup at the Arena de Sao Paulo yesterday.
In the 118th minute of the intense affair, Argentine forward Rodrigo Palacio snatched the ball from Switzerland right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner in midfield and slipped it to Lionel Messi, who produced his trademark burst of pace and pulled two defenders towards him to create space for an unmarked Di Maria. The Real Madrid winger slotted the ball into the far post past goalkeeper Diego Benaglio and that was all. Argentina reached their third successive quarterfinal.
Luck, however, was also on Argentina’s side. In the 120th minute Xherdan Shaqiri threaded a venomous cross from the right flank and substitute midfielder Blerim Dzemaili met it with a good header. Astonishingly for the Swiss supporters, the ball bounced back agonisingly from the side post before ricocheting off the midfielder’s feet towards safety. A few minutes later the final whistle was blown as the frustrated Swiss footballers fell down to the ground in heartbreaking pain.
The first half of extra time was a quite one but in the second minute of the second half of extra time, Di Maria was gasping for breath after seeing his 20-yarder punched away for a corner by the energetic Benaglio.
The typical Argentine flair was missing in large parts of the game as the Swiss were never short of motivation fighting neck-and-neck against the likes of Messi, Di Maria and Gonzalo Higuain. Led by the efficient and hard-tackling Napoli midfielder Gokhan Inler, Switzerland was proving to be a tough nut to crack.
Possession largely belonged to Messi and Co but it was all a story of losing the ball to the Swiss defenders most of the times. The Swiss backline comprising Lichtsteiner, Fabian Schaer, Johan Djourou and Ricardo Rodriguez was compact and picked out the short passing strategy of their fancied opponents by closing the spaces and the gaps.
The best chance of the first half of normal time was squandered by Switzerland forward Josip Drmic. Picking up possession in the opposition half, Drmic sailed towards Argentine custodian Sergio Romero and found himself in an one-on-one situation. The Nuremberg forward tried to chip the ball over but instead shot tamely into the gloves of a trembling Romero.
After resumption Argentina came out firing from all cylinders but it was the same old story of near misses as Benaglio thwarted a flurry of flicks and shots. It seemed like Argentina would break the deadlock any time but the much-coveted goal did not arrive.
Argentina continued to pile up the pressure on their opponents confining all the Swiss players to their own half apart from Shaqiri. The stiff resistance though put up by the Swiss eventually ended as Di Maria placed home from Messi’s assist. One negative for Argentina though is that of left-back Marcos Rojo, who will be suspended for the quarterfinal due to a yellow card received in the 90th minute.
