Argentina vs Switzerland, World Cup results: Messi, Di Maria combine for game-winner in extra time

On Tuesday, Argentina and Switzerland squared off in the World Cup “Round of 16” match up. The winner would advance to the quarterfinals and play the winner of the Belgium vs USA game.

You would expect Argentina to be the favorites in this match, though they didn’t look as impressive as they could’ve been in the Group Stage. Against Iran, the longest of shots to win in the World Cup, they needed a goal in stoppage time from Lionel Messi to win the game.

Switzerland hasn’t always lived up to their potential in the tournament as well, trailing France 5-0 at one point before making a late come back to make the scoreline more respectable.

In the first half it was Switzerland that had the first quality scoring chance. A big save from Sergio Romero kept Granit Xhaka from scoring in the 37th minute.

In the second half it was the Argentineans who almost got on the board with a shot from Marcos Rojo. He caught Swiss goalkeeper Diego Benaglio cheating one direction and shot the ball the other direction. Benaglio was able to recover and get the save.

The Argentinean onslaught kept coming in the second half, with Lionel Messi chesting down a ball before taking a big strike at it. He missed the mark but it was too close for comfort for the Swiss.

Lionel Messi got another shot off in the 78th minute, but it looked like he didn’t kick it as flush as he would’ve liked. Somewhat reminiscent of the Neymar shot in the opener against Croatia. Rodrigo Palacio was charging the keeper for the rebound but wasn’t able to get their in time to make a play. Instead it resulted in a somewhat unsettling clash with the goal keeper.

The game ended up going into extra time, with neither team being able to break the draw. Players began to get tired and cramp up, but they still had some quality chances.

Angel Di Maria almost got one through the Swiss defense but couldn’t give his team the lead.

In the final moments of extra time, Di Maria finally broke the scoreless draw to give Argentina the win. Lionel Messi went on an incredible run up towards the penalty box and drew in the defense. Messi then dumped the ball out wide to Di Mario who struck it on goal and past Benaglio to take the lead in the 118th minute.

The Swiss didn’t give up and were almost able to tie the game just moments later with a header from Blerim Dzemaili, The rebound came to him and he went just wide of the post missing out on scoring the equalizer goal.

The last play of the game was a freekick from the edge of the box for Switzerland, but they couldn’t score.