'He takes them if he wants': ARG coach Scaloni backs Lionel Messi to keep penalty duties
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "'He takes them if he wants': ARG coach Scaloni backs Lionel Messi to keep penalty duties")
'He takes them if he wants' Scaloni backs Lionel Messi to keep penalty duties Photograph: (X)
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni firmly backed Lionel Messi for penalty duties ahead of their World Cup quarterfinal against Switzerland despite recent misses.
Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni insists that his team captain, Lionel Messi, will continue to take penalties as long as he wants to. Ahead of Argentina’s crucial World Cup quarterfinal match against Switzerland, Scaloni has backed Messi to be the team’s penalty taker despite missing twice in the ongoing edition in North America. While he remains the tournament’s top scorer and leads the overall tally, Messi also holds a paradoxical record for the most missed penalties in World Cup history. His first miss came against Austria in the group stage, and his second during the Round of 16 match against Egypt.
"First of all, Leo will take penalties if he wants to," Scaloni said on Friday (Jul 10). "We have other players capable of taking them, but if he wants to take them, he'll take them."
Messi missed twice this time and has only converted four out of seven penalties since the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. However, Scaloni suggested that Messi’s legacy and his purple patch had earned him the right to make his own decisions during the game.
Also read| FIFA 2026 | Referee denied a penalty to Belgium vs Spain. What does FIFA rule say about it?
Speaking about his performances so far, the head coach noted that Messi has the freedom to roam around positionally to look out for potential chances, as he did during Argentina’s famous 3-2 win over Egypt in their previous encounter.
"In truth, these days he usually plays much more centrally," Scaloni said, “but our entire team -- and especially the players who move around him -- play in relation to him. That's normal. It happened naturally within the flow of the game. The team realised that he was creating danger from that side, especially because he was able to find passes into the opposite side where teammates could arrive. I think that became very clear.”
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'He takes them if he wants' Scaloni backs Lionel Messi to keep penalty duties Photograph: (X)
Scaloni Dismisses Egypt Coach’s 'Favouritism' Claims
Egypt’s head coach Hossam Hassan accused officials of favouritism towards Argentina following a controversial end to their Round of 16 match against the defending champions. After Egyptian striker Mustafa Ziko turned home a delightful pass, VAR intervention ruled out that goal for a foul on an Argentine defender 100 yards away on the other side. Even though Egypt scored another one through Ziko, Argentina pulled off a remarkable comeback to win it 3-2 and qualify for the quarterfinals.
Furious with the outcome, compounded by another call going against them in stoppage time, the Egyptian coach levelled explosive match-fixing accusations to keep Argentina alive in the tournament. Addressing this, Scaloni said, "Honestly, people have been saying those kinds of things about Argentina for a very long time. Back in 1986 [when Diego Maradona won the tournament], people also said Argentina received favourable treatment."
"The officiating has been very clear. Before the World Cup began, the referees showed everyone exactly how the rules would be interpreted. They said, 'This is how it will be called. This is how it will be called.' And that's exactly what's happened.
"Maybe sometimes people think a little more should have been called, or a little less. But there hasn't been any change in interpretation. There isn't another way to read it. Social media magnifies everything. That's where the debates begin. But there hasn't been any favouritism. Quite the opposite. Nowadays, it's actually very difficult for favouritism to exist,” he added.
