Netherlands player reveals his scary encounter with Lionel Messi during FIFA 2022 World Cup. Argentina won that match on penalties and progressed to the final.
Jurrien Timber of Ajax, who faced Lionel Messi’s Argentina in the 2022 World Cup quarterfinal in Qatar, has not yet moved past Messi. While the Dutch defender would like to think that he gave his best for the nation, Messi’s amazing ability to trick opponents at will got the better of him. He was given the duty of keeping Messi quiet during the knockout game for the Netherlands.
Timber had a difficult assignment before himself, and it got worse as it was a World Cup semifinal and the stakes were as high as they could possibly be. When asked about playing against Messi, the 21-year-old defender, remarked that the Argentine is nothing less than “scary” on the pitch and pounces on any error made by the opposition in a split second, making it nearly difficult for the defense to recover.
Jurrien Timber recalls ‘scary’ situation with Lionel Messi in WC
“Facing Messi in the World Cup? Messi is scary. He receives a bad pass, so you decide to jump to try to take it away from him, put him under pressure immediately, but he’s able to kill a bad pass with one touch. In a split second, the ball is under his foot in his total control. It’s unbelievable,” Timber told Ziggo Sport.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner helped Argentina win their third World Cup in Qatar and will go down in history as one of the greatest footballers to have taken the field. The Argentine captain leads the list of goal scorers (102) for the current World Champions and has the most appearances for his nation. Fans put Messi in the same spotlight as that of the great Diego Maradona.
While for the Nation it is all roses and rainbows for the 35-year-old, on the club front things have been turbulent lately. Messi, who plays for the Ligue 1 side PSG recently was given a two-week suspension by the club for disregarding the directive of the club. The Barcelona legend and La Liga’s leading goalscorer issued an apology later on. Meanwhile, the rumblings of Messi leaving PSG are ever-existent and making waves.
