If it took the Brazilians 12 years to make through to semifinal, it took the Argentines twice as much time. After legendary Maradona, the Argentine national team has changed some talented generations but the team of this formation achieved success.

The last time Argentina went through semifinal at Italian World Cup in 1990. The Argentines even made through to final where they failed to the Germans. In 1986 in semifinal Argentina won over Belgium by the brace of Maradona.

Perhaps, many thought Messi would have done the same. However, the other turned out to be a hero. “Pipa”, as the Argentines called Gonzalo Higuain, scored the first goal at the current World Cup and perhaps, the most important one in his career. He also had the second chance but the crossbar saved the Belgians. As for Messi, the leader of the Argentines did not hold a bad match and had a good chance but it really was not Maradona of 1986. The Argentines lacked di Maria who left the field early. Di Maria and Messi are the best in the national team.

Before the match, I found myself surrounded by the Argentine fans, who are living in cars on “Copacabana”. One of them asked me if I was Brazilian. Of course, it is the first question in Brazil. When I told him which country I was representing, he asked me – Stalin was from Georgia, was not he? By the way, it was for the first time that Stalin was mentioned. When this Argentine received a positive answer from me, he was pleased.

However, we did not continue talking about Stalin. Football and Maradona were the main topics of our conversation. I told him Messi is not at the level of Maradona. He agreed with me and said Maradona always won everything alone in the national team and club. Of course, he recalled the goal of Don Diego against England. The Argentine also mentioned the 1990 final and said the penalty was not in their net. Germany defeated Argentina by the penalty of Andreas Brehme. He was pleased when I mentioned Burruchaga and Valdano. We also recalled goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea. At that time a special song dedicated to Maradona was sung and my acquaintance joined his compatriots. The match was to start in a few minutes.

Lasha Tabagari, special correspondent of worldsport.ge from Rio de Janeiro