Argentina Di Maria, the general on the left, covered his knees without confrontation and fell to the ground with a face of pain.
Spain's player quickly kicked the ball out of the sideline to indicate that someone was injured.
The referee did not dare to neglect, and quickly stopped the game and made a rescue gesture to the sidelines.
Argentina's head coach was heartbroken.
Because Di Maria, who is almost 35 years old this season, just had knee rehabilitation surgery this summer.
However, his attending doctor was not optimistic about his World Cup journey.
But after Di Maria argued with the head coach, the head coach finally brought him to Qatar.
Who would have known that Di Maria fell on the court just forty minutes into the first game.
Seeing Di Maria in pain, the head coach knew that Di Maria was finished.
Sure enough, after checking on the field, the team doctor made a substitution gesture to the head coach.
Di Maria's injury recovery was like a bolt from the blue for Argentina National Team.
It's not that Di Maria is that important to this Argentina National Team, it's just that this sudden injury hit Argentina National Team's heart too hard.
It can be clearly seen that the military morale of Argentina's players is somewhat weakened.
Injuries are always the last thing you want to see on the sports field.
Looking at Di Maria being carried out of the field, Messi frowned and looked very solemn.
Di Maria is one of his best teammates in the national team.
Di Maria's recovery from injury is no less than a broken arm for Messi.
Replacing Di Maria is 28-year-old Joaquin-Correa from Lazio.
In the 45th minute, Li Mingyu made a long pass from the backcourt and found Pedri who was on the wing.
Pedri, who had not played football with Li Mingyu for more than half a year, suddenly found the tacit understanding he had with Li Mingyu.
This pass and run is simply amazing.
After stopping the ball, Pedri did not continue to choose to break through, but pushed the ball forward. Ferran-Torres ran out of the penalty area and brought out the opponent's central defender.
After Ferran-Torres received the pass, he pushed the football back with his back heel. Morata, who had already pressed his body in front of the small penalty area, leaned against the central defender and received the pass.
But the opponent was pressing against him, making it difficult for him to turn around and shoot. Moreover, the surrounding defensive players had already moved closer, leaving him no room to shoot.
Morata suddenly looked up and saw a familiar figure sneaking up from the middle.
Morata pushed the football out of the penalty area with a gentle push from the arch of his right foot.
The football rolled near the arc of the penalty area, and a Spain player wearing jersey No. 10 appeared in that position like a magic weapon descending from heaven.
All Argentina players were shocked.
Why does Li Mingyu appear in this position? Wasn't he just near the center circle?
Indeed, when Li Mingyu passed the ball, it was near the center circle, but after passing the ball, Li Mingyu stepped out with his two long legs, quickly shook off the defensive player, and came to the outside of the penalty area, just in time to receive the return ball from Morata.
This ball is so comfortable. Due to the pull of Ferran-Torres and Morata, there is almost no defender in front of Li Mingyu.
Li Mingyu swung his right leg very easily and hit the football hard.
The football flew towards Argentina National Team's goal like a white lightning.
Goalkeeper Martinez stretched his body as much as possible, but still could not stop the football from flying into the goal behind him.
The entire goal, Li Mingyu, Pedri, Ferran-Torres, Morata, four players, after passing the ball with four feet, returned to the feet of Li Mingyu.
Starting from Li Mingyu and ending with Li Mingyu, this goal was smooth and pleasing to the eye. It was a wonderful pass that played with the entire defense line of Argentina.
After scoring the goal, Li Mingyu waved to them and asked them to come together.
The foursome in the frontcourt hugged each other tightly.
These four people should be the most powerful frontcourt quartet of World Cup this year.
Messi was standing in the midfield, with his hands on his hips forlornly, looking at Li Mingyu hugging others, with a look of envy on his face.
When Enrique on the sidelines saw the goal, he hugged his assistant coach tightly with excitement.
This game is crucial to him and to the entire Spain.
In the first game, a beautiful victory must be used to bring confidence to the fans.
However, the powerful Argentina left Enrique still unsure.
Although he knew that Li Mingyu was strong enough, it was still unknown how much Li Mingyu, who was participating in World Cup for the first time, could exert his strength.
Because in this world, it is not uncommon for players who perform extremely well on a daily basis to become nothing once they reach the World Cup stage.
However, through these two goals, Li Mingyu told everyone that I am coming to the stage of World Cup.
Shortly after the goal, the referee blew the halftime whistle.
First half of the game, Spain 2:1 Argentina.
Three goals were scored in the first half of this game. Each goal was very exciting, which made the fans at the scene and in front of the TV very satisfied.
During the intermission, the audience received some bad news.
Di Maria has completely said goodbye to World Cup due to another tear in the meniscus of his right leg. Moreover, this injury may bring his career to an end.
However, this bad news was not informed to the players on both sides.
Di Maria, the man known as an angel, actually retired from the first game with an injury on his last World Cup tour, and it may have ended his career.
Like Messi, he has worked hard for more than ten years for a World Cup trophy. I wonder if Messi and his teammates can let Di Maria, who is already in the hospital, win this year's World Cup?
The second half of the game begins.
Argentina players have undergone midfield repairs and their mentality has returned to peace.
At the beginning of the second half, Argentina launched a fierce offensive against Spain.
Messi seems to have returned to his peak period, constantly dancing in the midfield and frontcourt of Spain, really as dexterous as his nickname Little Flea.
Seeing Messi deftly break through the circle surrounded by two or three people, the frequency of his feet was so fast that it was impossible to see clearly.
After getting out of the angle, Messi took a long shot, and the football went straight to the blind corner of the goal.
However, De Gea is in very brave condition today.
Facing this world-class shot, De Gea was like a roc spreading its wings, leaping into the air and holding the ball with one palm.
The football slid out of the door, and Spain fans booed as they escaped death.
Messi also held his head and looked at the goal with a look of disbelief. Can you save this ball?
De Gea, who saved the inevitable goal, put his hands on the ground, jumped up, and roared loudly.
This World Cup is probably the last World Cup of De Gea. At the age of 32, his strength has begun to decline significantly.
Before World Cup, De Gea once lost his starting position and was started several times by Unai Simon of the Spain Athletic Bilbao team, and he performed very well.
This season, De Gea used his performance to tell Enrique that he can still be trusted.
Although Li Mingyu faced Manchester City twice, and Li Mingyu completed two hat tricks, but in other games, De Gea proved himself with his strength.
Enrique finally chose De Gea as the starting goalkeeper for the first group match.
Because this game is so important, he is afraid that Unai Simon will not be able to withstand this huge pressure.
De Gea's performance in this game has been outstanding.
The divine save just now was not his only highlight today.
In the first half, De Gea used an anti-gravity kick to block the shot from the sideline that hit the defender in the middle.
De Gea worked hard for his starting position.
Argentina's corner kick came out, and De Gea took the lead, leaping high and steadily picking the football out of the air.
After getting the football, De Gea quickly looked forward and saw the position of Li Mingyu. He threw the ball with a strong hand and threw the football hard towards Li Mingyu who ran near the center circle.
The Argentina players started to chase back crazily.
However, when Li Mingyu received the ball thrown by De Gea, he silently said something in his heart.
"Start 'Assault'!"
Although there are two defenders of Argentina in front of Li Mingyu, a golden avenue has already appeared in front of Li Mingyu.
Li Mingyu's speed reached its highest level in an instant.
Since Li Mingyu's talent of Stronger Against Stronger was activated at the beginning, as long as Messi is still on the field, Li Mingyu's ability value will continue to increase until it is equal to Messi.
Now, Li Mingyu's ability value has soared to 95 points, which is much higher than his own.
After reaching 90 points, every additional point is a small qualitative change for a player.
Li Mingyu's hair had been blown back by the wind while running at high speed, and it looked very elegant.
Argentina's two defenders were unable to stop Li Mingyu's breakthrough.
And there was also a trace of hesitation in their hearts as to whether they should foul to stop Li Mingyu from advancing forward.
But just when they were hesitating, Li Mingyu had already unreasonably crushed them past.
Single ball.
Li Mingyu After switching to the midfielder position, he rarely has the opportunity to score a single goal.
Facing Martinez, who looked solemn, Li Mingyu showed an apologetic expression.
Come on, follow me in slow motion on the left and right, and replay in slow motion on the right and left.
Li Mingyu swayed his upper body left and right like a pendulum, causing Martinez to finally lose control of his legs and pounce in the direction he thought he was going.
And Li Mingyu flicked it with his right foot and wiped it from the other side of Martinez.
Facing the empty goal, Li Mingyu succeeded in one fell swoop.
3:1, Li Mingyu completed an amazing hat trick in his first World Cup debut.
This goal completely ignited the entire Lusail Iconic Stadium.
Even fans of Argentina couldn't help but express their respect for Li Mingyu's wonderful goal after a long-distance run.
This kid is too arrogant.
After scoring the goal, Li Mingyu celebrated for the first time on this court.
He ran to the sidelines, jumped high into the air toward the camera, landed, turned his back to the camera, and showed the number on his back.
No. 10, Li.
Li Mingyu let his name be forever engraved in the history of World Cup.
This goal seemed to have shattered Argentina's morale.
As the captain and leader of the team, Messi, stood near the center circle with a solemn expression, a look on his face that made people feel distressed.
Argentina's football champion Maradona once said that Messi is a top player, but he is not a good captain because he cannot inspire his teammates in adversity.
This has always been something that Messi has been criticized for.
When the ball is downwind, Messi is always so dazzling. When the ball is against the wind, Messi seems to be invisible.
After returning empty-handed from several world championships, Messi chose to quit the national team twice. This way of escaping also angered many Argentina fans.
And these are never seen in Maradona. He is never discouraged. No matter how strong the opponent is, Maradona will lead the team to crush them.
In 1986, World Cup and Maradona relied on their own efforts to bring the unpopular Argentina National Team to the podium of World Cup.
At that moment, Maradona was the god of Argentina.
The most powerful thing about Maradona is not how good his skills are, but his personal charm and strong spiritual attributes. That is Maradona. Although this is not good and that is not good, there are still countless fans who regard him as the god of football in their hearts.
And Messi has already won all the honors a player can get, and now there is only one World Cup left, but there are always people who think that Messi is nothing.
After the restart, Argentina National Team did not give up the attack.
Messi kept looking for opportunities in the frontcourt, constantly testing Spain National Team's defense.
But Enrique quickly made adjustments to the lineup after taking a two-goal lead.
Ferran Torres was replaced, and Koke, who played for Atletico Madrid, was replaced.
Three strong defensive midfielders completely covered Spain's defense.
The weak offensive Argentina National Team simply cannot break through the Parking the Bus of Spain National Team.
Finally, after Messi's shot hit Spain's defensive player and bounced off the sideline, the referee blew the whistle to end the game.
As soon as the whistle blew, Messi shook his head with a gloomy expression. He looked at the sky and sighed.