An exposed defense made way for Messi.. Petkovic’s adventure inflicts a heavy defeat on Algeria | sports

It is strange that you enter a match against the Argentine national team, and then it seems clear that you do not have a specific plan to monitor the most important Argentine star in recent decades, which is Lionel Messi, but this is what clearly seems that Vladimir Petkovic overlooked while preparing to play the Algeria match against Argentina.

The Algeria coach ventured to leave the depth open on one occasion, from which Messi scored, but the goal was disallowed for offside, the first clear warning bell of the danger represented by the Argentine star, who, despite reaching the age of thirty-nine, retains a tremendous amount of his physical fitness.

Exposed Algerian depth

The disallowed goal was from the flanks, but minutes later, it came from deep without supervision, and when Messi faces the goal from this position, things become very difficult, and this is what cost Algeria the first goal and opened the field wide.

The Algerians scored a goal that was disallowed due to offside, through the only attacking strategy adopted by Petkovic, which did not start in this tournament, but rather began in the African Cup. Grading the ball to the middle of the field, then the two wingers open the width of the field, one of them runs towards the area of operations, and it is the playmaker’s turn to send a pass that puts the winger face to face with the goalkeeper. If it were not for offside, the Algerians would have succeeded in translating Fares Shaybi’s ball into a real goal, after the ball settled past goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez but without moving. Scoreboard numbers.

Petkovic did not do anything else to attack Argentina’s depth, especially after coach Lionel Scaloni became aware of the threat coming from Algeria’s defenders Shaybi and Anis Hadj Moussa, so he assigned the duo Alexis McAllister and Rodrigo De Paul the duties of supporting the full-backs, so the Algerian threat to the Argentine goal was completely eliminated.

How to free Messi?

On the other hand, Messi had opened the scoring, revealing the depth of the Algerian defense, and he was now free to move between the three attacking positions. Sometimes he received from the corridor and penetrated, sometimes he received from the edge of the arc of the area and shot, and sometimes he followed McAllister’s shot from the opposite side and placed his right hand, deep in an exposed defense and two full-backs far from the two centre-backs. Messi can cause a lot of chaos in any team, even at the age of thirty-nine.

It is good to have a player like Ibrahim Mazza who can easily give you line-penetrating passes with exceptional skill, but when the other team becomes aware of your plans from the corridors, you must provide options from deep that give Mazza and the wingers other opportunities to create danger.

In the dark night… Bounedjah is missed

Amine Gouiri is a distinguished striker, but he is not the best in Algeria to play the role of the station on which your wingers can ascend, especially if they are wingers that depend on speed and space, and do not have the solutions of Riyad Mahrez with the ball at his feet, for example. Here the name of the most important absent person stands out, Baghdad Bounedjah, who played this role brilliantly despite his advanced age and the decline in his scoring abilities, but he is still the best Algerian striker in playing the role of the station.

When Petkovic made his substitutions, Gouiri took out the potential depth striker, and brought in Mohamed Lamine Amoura, the short stature who also preferred the spaces, to completely end what could be called a potential “Algerian attacking threat.” The risk became hostage to an aggressive shot from substitute Houssem Aouar, or improvised shots from time to time that were not based on a clear idea by the coach.

According to the Opta network, the Algerians failed to shoot any ball between the crossbar and the goal posts for the first time in the history of their participation in the World Cup.

Estimatedly, goalkeeper Luca Zidane could have prevented either the first or second goal, but the clear technical difference between coaches Petkovic and Scaloni, and between Messi and the rest, made the tactical difference in favor of the “Albiceleste.”