FIFA World Cup 2018: What Went Wrong For Argentina

Argentina are out of the World Cup and even the likes of Messi could not save their dream of winning the title this time in Russia. Didier Deschamps' side proved to be too much for them to handle. The loss meant that they would be going home, with France pushing through to the quarter-final of the tournament. It was a sad day for the fans, as Javier Mascherano announced his retirement from international football after his team had been eliminated from the tournament.

The South American side, managed by Sampaoli witnessed a really poor tournament and were disappointing in the game against France. The European side were clearly the better team on the night and deserved a win.

A total of four goals were conceded in the match by Argentina, scoring just thrice (a late goal by Aguero) and it was not enough for them to stay in the competition. The loss raised eyebrows after yet another poor performance from Messi and co.

When a team loses any game, there are a lot of fingers pointed at a lot of different people. One thing to remember here is that Football is a team game after all and the loss cannot be put on just one individual.

It was quite evident what was wrong with the Argentine side this time. That being said, below are the three main factors that were responsible for Messi and his team to go home.

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#1 - Aguero, Higuain and Dybala on the bench

In a game which should have seen Sampaoli play all his best players, the Argentine manager decided to bench all his strikers and play with more midfielders instead. It is understandable that if things might not go his way due to a poor game. In this case, the coach left out three goal-scorers with more than 100 goals combined between them in the domestic season.

He might not have picked the Manchester City man, as the attacker lashed out at him after the loss against Croatia. Just imagine what a difference Aguero could have made if he had started. The attacker scored a late goal to make it 4-3, though the team were in need of more. With Messi being the lone player up front, there was no aerial threat and the French defenders must have felt rather comfortable to an extent.

#2 - Tactics that just didn't work

Whether it was employing a three-man defence at the start of the tournament or the decision to play more midfielders in this match, nothing has worked for Sampaoli in this tournament. The reason could be the fact that he has failed to adapt and there hasn't been enough work done on studying the opposition when it mattered the most. In his post-match presentation, he stated that he did not play the attackers to accommodate more midfielders, though the point of doing so was really not clear.

Willy Caballero was completely dropped after his error against Croatia, which is understandable if you have the quality to back it up. However, Armani was really poor in the game and could have done much better, especially against the Mbappe goals.

These two goals came at a time when his team still had a chance to win the match and proved to be the difference at the end. Despite that, it was only his second international cap and what was the coach expecting of his third choice goalie?

#3 - Too much dependency on Messi

The fans were always looking at Messi to provide them with the divine intervention that would see Argentina go through to the next round of the competition, but it never came. There were some really good chances that the Barcelona talisman had to get on the score-sheet and the pressure was just too much for him. He was influential in creating the second goal which was deflected in by Mercado though.

The fact still remains that too much pressure was put on him alone and he should have had some more support, in either the creative department or in terms of the goals. The tactics and the choice of players just amazed everyone and eventually saw Argentina go home early from the competition.