France defender Theo Hernandez has warned Argentina that they don’t worry their talisman Lionel Messi forward of their epic World Cup ultimate in opposition to them on Saturday – however mentioned their opponents are ‘an unimaginable workforce’.
Les Bleus booked a spot within the ultimate after a hard-earned 2-0 win over Morocco on Wednesday evening, with Hernandez smashing within the opener earlier than Randal Kolo Muani sealed their progress.
The AC Milan full-back couldn’t maintain again his pleasure at reaching a World Cup ultimate after taking part in a serious function within the victory however insisted the prospect of arising in opposition to Messi will not be one thing that worries the French gamers.
France defender Theo Hernandez (L) insists his facet should not afraid of Lionel Messi (R) forward of their World Cup ultimate in opposition to Argentina
Hernandez – who scored the opener of their semi-final in opposition to Morocco – couldn’t disguise his pleasure about taking part in in a ultimate
Nevertheless, he did stress that France should deal with the complete workforce, telling Gazetta dello Sport: ‘We should recuperate for Sunday. We’re not terrified of Messi, however Argentina are an unimaginable workforce and we now have a number of days to work.’
‘Now we should take into consideration the Remaining, I’m drained nevertheless it’s so good to win a World Cup semi-final.’
Whereas France may declare they are not fazed by Messi, the ahead may have certainly despatched shockwaves throughout the entire squad after his beautiful show to single-handedly drag Argentina into the World Cup ultimate after beating Croatia 3-0 on Tuesday.
Messi scored Argentina’s opener from the spot after they had been controversially awarded a penalty earlier than embarking on a sensational dribbling run to arrange Julian Alvarez’s second objective to seal the win.
Messi pulled off a sensational run and help vs Croatia to seal Argentina’s place within the ultimate
The PSG famous person is being willed on by 1000’s across the globe to carry his first World Cup
Messi, 35, has by no means gained the World Cup and is determined to finish his drought by lifting the trophy on Sunday – which can be his final match within the event.
France boss Didier Deschamps has already addressed how his facet will take care of Messi, saying they’ll do no matter it takes to thwart him.
‘We are going to do every little thing humanly potential for that to not occur,’ Deschamps instructed BeIN Sport when requested about Messi’s bid to lastly carry the trophy. ‘On the finish of the match, somebody is getting a 3rd star on their shirt.’
Talking about their assembly with Messi throughout France’s 4-3 win over Argentina in 2018, he added: ‘He [Messi] truly performed as a centre-forward in opposition to us, which caught us without warning 4 years in the past.
However AC Milan star Hernandez insisted France are cautious of Argentina’s entire squad on Sunday
‘Now he’s in tandem, simply in behind the centre-forward, he’s choosing up the ball rather a lot and he’s working with it and looking out in nice kind.
‘He is without doubt one of the finest gamers on the earth and he has proven that, so in fact we’re going to attempt to counter Messi’s menace and cease him influencing the sport and Argentina will attempt to cease the affect of a few of my gamers.
‘This Argentina facet is completely different to the one we performed 4 years in the past.
‘We’ve got two sides with a substantial amount of high quality and it will likely be as much as key gamers to make a distinction, perhaps the workforce that makes fewest errors will win the sport.’
France’s Antoine Griezmann additionally mentioned dealing with Messi, saying it will likely be a ‘completely completely different proposition’ for the workforce.
‘Any workforce with Messi in is a very completely different proposition,’ he mentioned.
‘We have seen Argentina play and we all know how they play. They’re a tough workforce to play they usually appear on prime kind. It is not solely Messi. They’ve a powerful facet round them and they will have loads of assist within the crowd. We can be effectively ready.’
France’s World Cup ultimate in opposition to Argentina kicks off at 3pm on Sunday on the Lusail Stadium in Qatar.