Thomas Tuchel knows the threat posed by Lionel Messi as England gear up to face Argentina in their FIFA World Cup semi-final. Argentina have scored 17 goals at this year’s World Cup, out of which eight have been scored by Lionel Messi, a joint-high for the competition, alongside Kylian Mbappe.
Speaking at the pre-match press conference, England head coach Thomas Tuchel revealed that he had considered man-marking the Argentina skipper.
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‘Old-school man-mark on Lionel Messi’: Thomas Tuchel
“I was thinking about this, if we do a proper old-school man-mark [on Messi],” he said.
“I’m not sure if we follow through with this idea but it crossed my mind. I think everyone knows the spaces where he wants to show up. It’s just like, you analyse the matches, you feel he just sees stuff earlier than anyone else on the field.”
Messi didn’t score against Switzerland in Argentina’s quarter-final match, but did get an assist for Alexis Mac Allister’s opener. It saw him become the second player on record (since 1966) to get 10-plus goal contributions in multiple World Cups (2022 and 2026), after Mbappe (2022 and 2026).
“It’s just like the ball drops to him, he finds the gap, he makes himself the space for his left foot and then executes the solution on the very highest level,” said Tuchel.
“I think we found some patterns in their game of course but if we close the patterns he will find a new one or create a new one.
“It is his super strength, it is just what it is. It is an exciting setup, it is very unique to play against the reigning champions, it is very unique to play against Leo Messi and his team. It is unique to play with England against Argentina. It is just a big match in every department,” he added.
This will be the sixth World Cup meeting between Argentina and England. Only Germany (seven) and the Netherlands (six) have faced Argentina as often or more often at the tournament.
England has lost only two of their 14 internationals against Argentina, winning six and drawing the other six. One of the draws saw them fall to a penalty shootout defeat in the last 16 in 1998.
