{"id":39857,"date":"2023-05-27T11:56:49","date_gmt":"2023-05-27T11:56:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/2023\/05\/27\/lionel-messi-destiny-new-documentary-goes-inside-argentinas-world-cup-win\/"},"modified":"2023-05-27T11:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-27T11:56:49","slug":"lionel-messi-destiny-new-documentary-goes-inside-argentinas-world-cup-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/?p=39857","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi: Destiny – new documentary goes inside Argentina’s World Cup win"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Watch Lionel Messi: Destiny on BBC One on Saturday, 3 June at 22:20 GMT, and on BBC iPlayer<\/em><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

A new BBC documentary tells the inside story of how the great Lionel Messi finally won the World Cup.<\/span><\/p>\n

In an hour-long film, the BBC delves into that success with input from some of those involved – including players Emiliano Martinez, Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez, and manager Lionel Scaloni.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here are a few takeaways…<\/span><\/p>\n

A sleepless night followed defeat by Saudi Arabia<\/h3>\n

Argentina went into the tournament as one of the favourites, and on the back of a 36-game unbeaten run.<\/span><\/p>\n

But their confidence was rocked as they lost their opening Group C game 2-1 to <\/span>Saudi Arabia<\/span><\/a> in one of the biggest World Cup shocks of all time.<\/span><\/p>\n

“It was the hardest night of my life – I couldn’t sleep,” recalls goalkeeper Martinez. “I was afraid of getting knocked out of my first World Cup.”<\/span><\/p>\n

The Aston Villa player, 30, compares the game to a boxing match in which one person gets knocked out. “We couldn’t fight back,” he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mac Allister played ‘like he was in his back garden’<\/h3>\n

Brighton midfielder Mac Allister was one of the surprise stars in Qatar – and topped the BBC Sport player rater as <\/span>Argentina beat France on penalties in the final.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The 24-year-old flourished alongside Messi, Enzo Fernandez and Angel di Maria.<\/span><\/p>\n

“He’s a complete midfielder,” says former Argentina right-back Pablo Zabaleta.<\/span><\/p>\n

Scaloni is also full of praise for Mac Allister, saying: “He showed us something that we didn’t know about him – he doesn’t feel pressure. <\/span><\/p>\n

“It’s like he’s playing in his back garden.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Argentina’s players felt at home in Qatar<\/h3>\n

Scaloni did a great job of creating the right atmosphere for his players in Qatar – including importing some home comforts.<\/span><\/p>\n

At the time, it was <\/span>reported<\/span>external-link<\/title><\/svg><\/span><\/a> the squad had 2,000lbs (900kg) of meat flown over from South America.<\/span><\/p>\n

“Everything was perfect,” says Mac Allister. “It felt like home. We played cards and drank [caffeine rich] mate tea… and even had Argentine meat!”<\/span><\/p>\n

Zabaleta says those three things are “like a religion” for Argentines. <\/span><\/p>\n

Messi became ‘that bad boy’ against the Netherlands<\/h3>\n

Argentina came through a particularly fiery quarter-final that featured 18 yellow cards – two of which resulted in the sending-off of Netherlands defender Denzel Dumfries.<\/span><\/p>\n

After the final whistle, the Argentina players taunted their opponents, with Martinez – who saved two penalties in the shootout that followed a 2-2 draw – shouting at Netherlands boss Louis van Gaal.<\/span><\/p>\n

“I heard Van Gaal saying that in a penalty shootout they had the advantage,” he said after the game. “I think he needs to keep his mouth shut.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Even the typically mild-mannered Messi took issue with a comment from Van Gaal, who had said the Argentina captain did not “participate much” when his team lost the ball.<\/span><\/p>\n

When Messi scored during normal time, he ran straight to the Dutch bench and cupped his ears. <\/span><\/p>\n

That celebration, as the film explains, was inspired by former team-mate Juan Roman Riquelme, who felt badly treated by Van Gaal at Barcelona.<\/span><\/p>\n

But many were surprised by this new side to Messi.<\/span><\/p>\n

“We are more aggressive than the national team he had before,” says Martinez. “He was probably becoming a little bit more like us – that bad boy.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Martinez is like ‘a child on the pitch’<\/h3>\n

Martinez was Argentina’s shootout hero once again in the final as La Albiceleste beat the defending champions.<\/span><\/p>\n

His antics drew plenty of comment, as he threw the ball away, danced, and celebrated in front of France’s players.<\/span><\/p>\n

Referring to the jig he did after Aurelien Tchouameni missed France’s third penalty, he says: “I never danced the way I danced after the second pen that they missed. Never in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

“That’s me. I’m a child on the pitch. I don’t see what’s going to happen next.”<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Across<\/span><\/span>\"Across<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

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[ad_1] Watch Lionel Messi: Destiny on BBC One on Saturday, 3 June at 22:20 GMT, and on BBC iPlayer A new BBC documentary tells the inside story of how the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39858,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39857"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=39857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39858"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=39857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=39857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=39857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}