Par Lionel Scaloni is an exaggeration: "I don't wake up every day thinking I'm world champion," the coach told a news conference. And, coming from him, it does not seem to be false modesty. However, for the rest of the members of the Scaloneta, for the players punctually, the situation seems to be different. And Dibu Martínez can attest to that: the goalkeeper of the Argentine National Team, dreams every day of his historic (unforgettable) cover against Kolo Muani in the final of Qatar 2022. And if the image does not return to your mind alone, there is always someone who makes you remember it. A video on Instagram, a fan's comment, or a question from a journalist. It is that, that in the final minute against France, was the save of his life.
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There will never be a tackle like that," Dibu confirms. Able that I have stopped some better, but that will remain for life, for the moment, the tension, the suffering ... Because I felt the tension of my centre-backs because they had tied us; everyone's tension. It is a moment in which the team is very hurt, and what I rescue most is to have been calm at the moment of impact. I didn't run away out of desperation. I didn't go back. I stayed where I had to stay, it's what I rescue the most mentally. I will be able to tackle 200 better balls, but that is going to be the save of my life," Emiliano Martinez told ESPN.
"I didn't say, 'I can't believe what I stopped.' You know what I think about most? In the silence that there was when the ball was stinging in the one on one. The stadium was 80% Argentine, when the ball passed it to Otamendi, there was a silence of two seconds. Sometimes I go to sleep and hear that silence in the stadium. That moment of pause, in which the game was stopped, nothing was heard, and then it was followed. It's something very difficult to explain," continued the goalkeeper.
Emiliano Martínez said that he is still surprised by the impact caused by the title of the Scaloneta in Qatar and also accepted that he likes to have become a reference for the boys: "The first time I saw all that was post-World Cup, when we went to Santiago and Buenos Aires. And that gave me a lot of things, the tears in the anthem, or the desperation to play the two games. Today the boys imitate you, people my age never saw Argentina world champion. And now who are the boys going to take as an idol? To a Lautaro Martínez, to a Julián Álvarez for the celebrations. Children look for examples, I always say that the examples are the mother and the father. But in sports, I looked at Pato Abbondanzieri, or Pelado Barthez when I was a kid, because they did different things. And today that they imitate the dance is very nice."
The goalkeeper also referred to the mistreatment that Lionel Messi began to receive at Paris Saint-Germain and the whistles that were heard in the Parc des Princes on the last date every time the 30 touched the ball: "If they whistle him, I would bring him to Vila. I would say 'before they whistle at you, come here, we'll bait you mate'; There I do barbecues every weekend, I tell people to make flags and that's it, he has a good time. I cut my salary, we do our best."
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