Argentine star Lionel Messi led his country to a hard victory over Ecuador with a clean goal, in the first round of the South American continent qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
Messi scored the only goal of the match and the victory for Argentina in the thirteenth minute from a penalty kick, awarded to his teammate Lucas Ocampos.
Strange request
The strange thing about the penalty kick is that Ocampos himself surprised everyone after the referee announced its calculation, after he tried to implement it, despite the presence of the captain Messi on the field, who is known to have specialized in the implementation of penalty kicks for years with the “tango” team.
A video clip spread on various social media sites, of Ocampus trying with extreme and strange boldness to implement the penalty kick, where he told him, as it appeared in the translated clip: “Are you interested in implementing the penalty kick?”; What prompted the “flea” to answer “yes, yes” with his head moving, as it appeared in the video.
Although Messi is known for his specialization in the implementation of penalty kicks, both with his country, Argentina and his Spanish club Barcelona for many years, Ocampos appeared very bold in this strange request, and he became the talk of various social media platforms.
Messi’s challenge
After the end of the meeting, the Argentine and international media focused on this particular shot, and considered Ocampos’ behavior as an explicit challenge to Messi in the matter of penalty kicks.
In addition, some other means described his behavior as “strange and surprising” at the same time; Because Messi is the number one specialist in penalty kicks with Argentina for more than 10 years.
The reason for the strange request
Ocampos’ request to take the penalty kick against Ecuador in place of Messi comes after his great success in that mission with Seville last season.
Ocampos hit 5 penalties in the Spanish League accompanied by the “Andalusian” team, with a success rate of 100%, without failing any one, and he was Sevilla’s top scorer in the “La Liga” with 14 goals.
Like the Spanish League, Ocampos scored with the penalty mark against Bayern Munich in the European Super Cup, to prove that he is a player specializing in those kicks, in addition to that his level has been on the rise since last season, which explains why he asked Messi, who is under great pressure with the national team. Argentine.
Hopes and aspirations
And Argentine fans hold huge hopes and aspirations on the “flea” to appear in a strong form in the World Cup in Qatar and win the world title, especially with the decline in the level of the national team in recent years.
Messi has not won a major title with Argentina since his international debut in 2005, and he is criticized for that.
The biggest achievement for “Al-Flea” with “Tango” was to win the 2014 World Cup championship, after the team fell in the final against Germany with a clean goal.
The upcoming Qatar World Cup remains the last hope of Messi to retire internationally from the big door, especially with his advanced age and reaching 33 years of age.
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