Joe Molloy was joined by former footballers Keith Treacy and Pat Nevin on #OTB this evening, reviewing the World Cup final that was between Argentina in France.
“Everybody wanted Messi to win it" said Keith Treacy, and so it transpired that it was written in the starts that he would do just that.
After a thrilling 3-3 finish after extra time the record Ballon d'Or holder added yet another trophy to his cabinet, the one that had alluded him for so long.
Although his legacy was never in doubt given as Treacy marks out that for him “even if Messi had of lost this final he's still the best of all time", the “luxury player” really set himself apart after this tournament, collecting the golden ball in the process.
“When you watched him afterwards, he looked in disbelief as well. I mean, he couldn't believe what had just gone through” said Nevin.
“Considering all the things that he's gone through in his career, and the genius that he's had and the goals that he has scored, to walk out at the end of this, after all the things that happened today…it was extraordinary.”
"It was him, it was absolutely him" Nevin continued, citing that “without Messi they don't look like a team that could win the World Cup, they absolutely need him, but hey, since so many good teams over the years have had a great player and at the core of it.”
Having scored the opening goal as well as the first penalty in the shootout, he catapulted his team’s victory on the most dramatic of stages against a France who many, as did Nevin, argue were the “better side on paper.”
There was a mitigating factor however that Nevin pinpoints may have made the difference- their drive.
“They've kept on growing. Do you know why things really jumped out today? Their passion compared to the French who lacked passion for large parts of that game” he said.
Treacy too echoed this sentiment, saying that while people “always put Messi and Ronaldo into the same bracket” there was a key difference evident between the two at this year’s World Cup.
“When you look at the Portuguese with Ronaldo it looks like Ronaldo wanted to win it for him, it didn't look like the Portuguese players were as strongly behind him as the Argentinian players are behind Messi” he added.
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