Lionel Messi glanced up for barely a heartbeat.
It was stoppage time of the World Cup semi-final. Argentina had already rescued themselves once, and now sensed one last opportunity to avoid extra time. Inside England’s penalty area stood a wall of white shirts. One defender rushed out to close Messi down, another threw out a desperate leg to block the cross. Three more occupied the six-yard box, each standing exactly where a delivery ought to land. Jordan Pickford lurked behind them, waiting for anything overhit.
The passing lane didn’t exist. Or so it seemed.
Messi’s right foot clipped the ball into the night sky. It rose over the first challenge, skimmed above the heads of England’s defenders by inches, drifted beyond Pickford’s reach, left him in a dilemma whether to commit or leave, and, almost impossibly, dipped at precisely the moment Lautaro Martínez arrived at the far post. By the time the Argentina striker nodded home the winner, guiding the defending champions to a second successive final, the ball had travelled over almost the entire England defence before landing gently on his forehead.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish great, gushed on Fox: “I had said yesterday that you’re going to see the left foot of God. You got to see the right foot of God … beautiful moment.”
Football has always celebrated players who beat defenders with feints and dribbles.
Diego Maradona’s ‘Goal of the Century’ against England in 1986 remains perhaps the sport’s greatest act of individual brilliance. Starting inside his own half, he dribbled past five outfield players, rounded Peter Shilton and rolled the ball into an empty net. Forty years on, against the same opponents, Argentina produced another moment that belonged in the same conversation. Maradona erased six Englishmen by carrying the ball. Messi erased six with a cross.
Messi has made those weaving runs, too. The slalom against Getafe, that run through Athletic Bilbao and countless solo goals for Barcelona belonged to a footballer who bent matches at his will, with his legs. That version of Messi is gone.