‘I can feel here that everyone wants to see Messi lift the World Cup’ : Pochettino
Lionel Messi led Argentina beat Poland 2-0 on Thursday to move into the round of 16 in the ongoing edition of the Qatar World Cup.
Messi, who has scored two goals at the tournament so far, had a penalty saved but his team still beat Poland after second-half goals from Alexis Mac Aller and Julian Alvarez.
Argentina wound up finishing in first place in Group C and will next play Australia — a surprise qualifier for the knockout stage.
Messi rolls into Saturday’s game suddenly in a strong position in likely his final World Cup.
“I can feel here that everyone, football people, wants to see Messi lift the World Cup trophy. Everything Messi has given to football is like football should reward Messi giving him the trophy,” Mauricio Pochettino told talkSPORT.
“I always len to people talking about that and people that were great playing against Messi – it impossible to stop him,” he said.
“It’s really, really difficult. He’s a genius, the best player in the world. These types of things you can only be lucky and try and get the ball back from him,” he added.
“I think it is a thing that is going to be good and see how the competition is going to be tough for all the team,” he further added.
“Of course for England also, why not a final? Argentina vs England should be amazing. England are doing well also,” Pochettino conluded.