MESSI MAGIC SAVES THE DAY BUT LES BLEUS AWAIT IN KAZAN
Two perfect touches. pic.twitter.com/rUd6GDBxvt— Ryan 🇦🇷 (@xLioneI) June 26, 2018
Lionel Messi once more donned his Superman cape and saved Argentina. The exquisite technique of arguably the world's greatest footballer told in Saint Petersburg.
An honourable mention too to Marcus Rojo's perfectly-timed strike for their second.
Buenos Aires as expected was on fire, warming the South American winter:
The fantasy romance of Messi the Forever Prince of the World Cup continues for at least another 90 minutes.
Commiserations to Nigeria who played wonderfully when beating Iceland and with better finishing would have been playing France in the next round instead.
That record-breaking replica shirt is still a cool badge of honour amongst the European expats.
Will Argentina be smiling in Kazan on Saturday?
The pain of the Croatia match has largely healed but is the ship still fatally holed?
They controlled much of last night's game against a young and inexperienced Nigeria but still veered between disorder and recklessness, fluency and genius.
The epitome of this kaleidoscope came from above - Diego Maradona no less, the deux ex machina, going through the gamut of human emotions from his posh seats.
Jorge Sampaoli was fully-clothed last night but with the score stuck at 1-1 and elimination beckoning, recommenced his nervous pacing of the technical area, before exploding in blissful liberation once Rojo scored.
They can enjoy the champagne for now but sterner tests are fast approaching, starting and perhaps ending with the French.
Their latest goalkeeper Franco Armani was nothing special, albeit an error-free improvement on Willy Caballero. What a night on which to make your debut.
Their best defender is the shaky Nicolas Otamendi, while 34 year-old, China-based Javier Mascherano is still a cornerstone of the side, yet last night ineptly gave away a penalty which led to a goal.
Up front there is still much confusion as to who to start with and where. Sergio Aguero seemed to have fallen out with Jorge Sampaoli which meant he was benched until late on but Gonzalo Higuain once more flunked his big audition.
According to Spanish press reports, Sampaoli even asked Messi if he should bring Aguero on...
The hitherto impressive Enzo Perez was flat while the recalled Ever Banega shone.
Angel Di Maria was recalled but was substituted and the winning goal was scored by a defender who had loped upfield and decided to hang around there for a while.
Who on earth Sampaoli will pick to play France is anyone's guess.
Can the Alabiceleste beat Les Bleus, group winners and one of the pre-tournament favourites who boast the likes of Antoine Griezmann, Olivier Giroud and Kylian Mbappe in attack?
Of course they can with Messi around...
(c) Sean O'Conor & Soccerphile