Lionel Messi: Argentina star set to star in last dance at World Cup after Croatia heroics – The Warm-Up

We sort of guessed PSG hadn’t received the real Lionel Messi. He always appeared too slow. Unsure of himself. Dare we say it, distinctly mortal. Now we know why. It turns out the original Messi that left Barcelona in August 2021 has been holed up underground somewhere, patiently recharging for the 2022 World Cup.

Messi’s greatest trick has always been strolling around the pitch at 0.1mph, restoring his energy bar to maximum, then suddenly exploding away. But aware that his powers were on the wane in his mid-thirties, and with one major medal missing from his collection, he clearly decided to get out of Barca, send a stooge to Paris and pull off his recharging trick for a full 18 months.

And it’s worked a treat. While his nemesis Cristiano Ronaldo contemplates a future without a World Cup medal, and possibly a club no one has heard of, Messi is just one win away from settling the GOAT debate once and for all. For all his dazzling artistry through the years, he needs this one to banish Pele and Diego Maradona from the conversation.

‘But he was Player of the Tournament in 2014, is that not already enough?’ It’s a fair question, fictional reader, but only if you didn’t actually watch the 2014 World Cup. Yes, Argentina reached the final and yes, Messi did score in all three group games, but he was largely an overly-marked passenger in the knockouts. James Rodriguez, Arjen Robben, Manuel Neuer and Thomas Muller – hell, even his team-mates Javier Mascherano and Angel Di Maria – had better tournaments. It’s an award even disgraced ex-FIFA boss Sepp Blatter regrets – and when Sepp Blatter regrets something, you know it must have been truly terrible.

In 2022, Argentina have got better with every single game (save for their delicious 18-minute meltdown against the Dutch). The reason? Messi has got better with every single game. His latest outing saw him singlehandedly destroy Josko Gvardiol’s chances of a bumper January move away from Leipzig in one glorious run – dancing down the touchline, then accelerating, pausing, accelerating again, twisting, dummying, turning, accelerating once more, barging, and passing to the grateful right foot of Julian Alvarez.

The worry now for Messi is that it all gets too much for his team-mates. No one wants to be the guy who wrecks his dream – nor, perhaps, play too well in the final and accidentally steal the headlines. The other worry is his left hamstring, which he ominously grabbed throughout the first half before appearing to shrug it off. We’ll have to wait until Sunday to see if 18 months was long enough to recharge for the full tournament.

It is football’s answer to “the dress”. Do you see black and blue, or white and gold? Do you see a clear penalty or an innocent goalkeeper? If you’ve not seen it yet – seriously though, what is more important than a World Cup semi-final? – feast your eyes on the below clip and make up your mind:

For those crammed into the ITV studio, it was never a penalty. “What else can he do? He’s run into him!” So when former English referee Peter Walton appeared to sassily say Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic “should win the ball”, it prompted a fierce reaction – and not just in the studio. It seems the debate has stretched across the world.

Now you’re probably sat at home wondering: ‘well, what does the Warm-Up think?’ For us, it’s a penalty. We don’t know what Livakovic is meant to do once he’s realised the ball has gone over him. But he does make an initial movement towards the ball, then takes a couple more steps after briefly stopping, then sticks out a leg. No, he doesn’t fly into him, but the idea Livakovic is an innocent bystander isn’t for us. Sadly, that opinion led to us being booted out of our group WhatsApp chat but we would rather be on the right side of history, thank you very much.

Anyway, no prizes for guessing which side of the debate Luka Modric is on.

"Argentina were a fair winner of the match, they were better, they deserved to win, but these things have to be mentioned, I generally don't do them, but today they have to be done," Modric said after the game.

''I don't like to talk about referees, but this is one of the worst. I don't have a good memory of [referee Daniele Orsato], he's a disaster. For me, it wasn't a penalty.''

It’s a bit disingenuous to say this is Africa’s first time on the semi-final stage at a World Cup. You only have to look at the France squad four years ago, with at least 15 of their players having African roots as they carted home the trophy.

Indeed, this talented Morocco squad could have been split up across multiple nations, had the country not implemented a successful scouting system that ensured top players born in other countries, but with Moroccan descent, were identified early. That system is now paying dividends at Qatar 2022. Arguably their four most important players on their run to the last four were born elsewhere, along with over half of their squad. Hakim Ziyech and Sofyan Amrabat were born in the Netherlands, Achraf Hakimi in Spain, Yassine Bounou – Bono as we all know him – in Canada. All were sold the Moroccan football dream, all took the bait.

Now they are just 90 minutes – or more likely 120 minutes and a bit, if it goes to plan – from reaching the World Cup final. Can they keep France quiet? And take it all the way to penalties?

Like a fine wine.

Think you've got what it takes to bring the Belgium squad back together after a disastrous World Cup? You've got until January 10 to get your application together for the top job.

Morocco versus France, 19:00 GMT, for a ticket to Messi's coronation.