Messi reveals he tried to surprise Croatian keeper Livakovic with his penalty
Lionel Messi revealed that he did his homework on Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic’s penalty saving techniques with his team-mates Emiliano Martinez and Geronimo Rulli ahead of Tuesday’s last four meeting.
The Argentine national hero admitted studying his opponent before his country’s semi-final showed that Livakovic preferred to wait for penalty takers to make the first move before reacting, and Messi was determined not to give him the upper hand.
As it was, the 35-year-old fired his spot kick into the top right corner after a short and sharp run up, rather than stutter his approach and wait for the keeper to flinch first, as has become a growing trend in modern football.
‘I studied the Croatian goalkeeper’s technique with Geronimo Rulli and with Dibu (Emiliano Martinez),’ the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner told Argentinian outlet TyC Sports.
‘We talked about how he waited a lot. The best thing to do was to surprise and hit it at once, instead of waiting and holding him.
‘When they hold him for a long time, it’s difficult. I was determined to kick like that.’
Messi had already scored from 12 yards against Saudi Arabia and Holland twice – once in the shootout – but missed against Poland after Wojciech Szczesny guessed the right way.
Equally, Livakovic had saved four penalties in shootouts in knockout clashes with Japan and Brazil, and therefore represented a formidable foe for the Argentinian talisman.
The advice of Martinez – himself something of a shootout specialist between the sticks – and Rulli clearly paid dividends as Messi put his side 1-0 up in the tie early on.
In doing so, the PSG star drew himself level with Kylian Mbappe at the top of the World Cup scoring charts with five to his name, having never won the golden boot.
He also registered his third assist of the tournament in typical Messi fashion after a balletic run turned Chelsea target Josko Gvardiol inside and out before laying it off for Julian Alvarez to tap home and make it 3-0 on the night.
But with one more round of World Cup action to come, the 35-year-old may yet be called on for spot-kick duty against France in Sunday’s show-piece final, though it is yet to be seen whether he undertakes similar homework on Hugo Lloris’ technique.
