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Veteran Brazil international Dani Alves has heaped praise on Lionel Messi while shutting down talks of a potential semifinal clash against Argentina at the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Argentina and Brazil have made their way to the quartefinals, beating Australia and Korea Republic respectively. La Albiceleste will be up against the Netherlands in the last eight, while Brazil will take on 2018 FIFA World Cup finalists Croatia. A mouth-watering clash between the two South American giants will be on the cards if they can beat the two European teams.
Alves, who knows Argentine maestro Messi very well from his Barcelona days, has lavished praise on the Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) superstar. The iconic full-back has said that Messi is synonymous with Argentina, who are heavily reliant on the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner. As quoted by Mundo Albiceleste, Alves said:
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“Messi right now is Argentina. Everything goes through him. Everything goes through his feet."
"I believe that he is in an incredible moment. Without a doubt, he is one of the players to take into account in this competition.”
Dani Alves has also refused to talk about a potential semifinal showdown between Argentina and Brazil. The former Barcelona full-back said that it will be disrespectful to Croatia to talk about a semifinal game against Argentina when there's a quarterfinal to be won. He added:
“We are not here to choose an opponent, whoever is selected, we are going to have to put everything we have into it to be able to fight for the objective. We cannot think of a semi-final because we are in the quarter-finals."
He added:
"Out of respect for Croatia and our opponents, we have to focus on this match. Croatia has a lot of quality players and deserves 110% of our attention.”
Brazil and Argentina last met at the World Cup in Italy in 1990. In an ill-tempered game, Claudio Caniggia's strike, assisted by the late Diego Maradona, was the difference between the two teams.
Argentina captain Lionel Messi names 4 favourites to win 2022 FIFA World Cup
Argentina captain Lionel Messi has named four teams as favourites to win the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
The PSG superstar has named Brazil, Argentina, Spain and France as the four frontrunners. Messi said:
"Argentina are one of the candidates. Argentina are a powerhouse and are always among the best. We knew we were one of the candidates, but we had to prove it on the pitch, and we proved it again against Australia."
He added
"Brazil are doing very well, despite the defeat against Cameroon. They are still one of the great favourites. France are also doing well, and Spain, despite losing to Japan, are a team that play very well, that are very clear about what they do, and it is very difficult to take the ball away from them, as they control possession for a long time. It will be difficult to beat them."
Argentina take on Netherlands on Friday (December 9), a few hours after Brazil take on Croatia.
