Analysis: Forget Lionel Messi, Aston Villa ace Emiliano Martinez was Argentina’s hero v Australia
Lionel Messi has unsurprisingly stolen all of the headlines after he produced a goalscoring performance in his 1,000th game as Argentina beat Australia in the last 16 of the World Cup on Saturday.
Messi, 35, ran the show for the South Americans as they beat the Aussies 2-1 ar the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Qatar, setting up a salivating quarter-final showdown with the Netherlands after they beat the USA earlier in the day.
And while it’s understandable for the best player in the world to be earning all the attention, not enough is being said about the role Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez played in Argentina’s victory.
Martinez, 30, couldn’t keep a clean sheet for his country.
Unfortunately, there was nothing he could do when Craig Goodwin’s shot took a huge deflection of Enzo Fernandez to take it away from the ex-Arsenal goalkeeper and into the bottom corner.
Martinez, in fact, had just one save to make in the entire 90 minutes [WhoScored]. But it was arguably one of the biggest saves he’s made in his career.
In the seventh minute of stoppage time, Australia’s teenage sensation Garang Kuol found himself with a huge chance inside the penalty area after a beautiful touch and turn left Nicolás Tagliafico on the deck.
Kuol, 18, opened up space for himself but the experienced Martinez sensed the danger coming and started to charge off his goal line towards the Aussie attacker.
As shown in the freeze-frame below, Martinez managed to get himself down and spread his arms as wide as possible to block Guol’s shot from getting past him.
Luckily, the ball bounced down and was easily picked up and held by the goalkeeper a split second later.
BBC Radio 5 Live pundit Pat Nevin hailed incredible goalkeeping, as quoted on BBC Sport’s matchday blog on Saturday at 08:57pm.
“Brilliant save by Martinez, he’s come out and killed the angle,” said the former Chelsea and Everton player.
“That’s not a bad miss, that’s a great save. Great goalkeeping.
“I didn’t know if Australia would get another chance. They got it and they couldn’t take it.”
Martinez’s save is proof that while the big-name attackers will always steal the show and grab the headlines, the men behind him are usually the ones that win games.
Sure, having amazing attackers will win you games.
But a solid defence is what wins you silverware and Martinez’s heroics are a major sign that Argentina are a force to be reckoned with in his World Cup.
He’s easily one of the best goalkeepers in Qatar and Aston Villa are no doubt proud of that fact.
But let’s just hope that he doesn’t come up against England and puts on the type of performance that booked Argentina’s spot in the quarter-finals without the need for extra time against the Aussies.
In other Aston Villa news, Lamare Bogarde is maturing quicker than expected at Villa Park.