The craziest 17 seconds of Julián Álvarez

At minute 38.07 Julián Álvarez was at the near post of his goal, next to Dibu Martínez, waiting for a Croatian corner.

At minute 38.24 Julián Álvarez was celebrating a goal inside the opposite goal, next to a hallucinated Domink Livakovic, the Croatian goalkeeper.

What happened in those 17 seconds was pure football, the one that is born below, in the courtyards of lights and the school tracks, at the door of the house, in the street of a neighborhood without lights.

The old football of the type who runs with the ball by himself more for fear that the owner of the ball will take it from him, because they call him from the window for a snack, than because he wants to score a goal.

Croatia took the corner to the back, in the direction of Brozovic, in a kind of rehearsed play so that Brozovic, from the angle of the area, hung the ball.

But the action was aborted.

by whom?

For Julián Álvarez, who as soon as he saw Brozovic free, started running from the near post like a devil's soul.

The Croatian player saw the poisoned Spider towards him and tried to get the cross out as quickly as possible to no avail;

The ball hit the Argentine number 9, and the center was devalued, it was a damaged center that stayed on the front, where two Argentines jumped on it to start a counter.

De Paul caught it with his head, and the ball fell at the feet of Leo Messi, who controlled it long and fell on the pitch.

The ball, dead, stayed for whom?

For Julian Alvarez.

More information

The semifinals of the World Cup in Qatar between Argentina and Croatia, in pictures

The City striker began to run towards glory while a fellow athlete of his, Nahuel Molina, hit the sprint of his life to seek an uncheck and clear the life of Álvarez.

His action opened a little hole in the defense of two Croats through which the Spider wanted to sneak in, already overtaken by a third.

One of the defenders touched the ball, not enough, and the leather tripped over Álvarez;

the second could also reject, but without force, and Álvarez took it back.

All this was witnessed in tenths of a second by the stupefied goalkeeper Livakovic, unable to leave in the presence of his two defenders, in such a way that when Julián Álvarez appeared at the goal, Livakovic was surprised: what is this guy doing here, if I had two defenders in front of me, and what do I do now, if I'm under an arc of 7.32 meters.

It was a small child's goal, the one that goes on and on and on, benefited by rebounds, benefited by luck, benefited by life.

But that, to get to that area, he had to break his soul running, he had to believe that he was reaching Brozovic's impossible cross coming from the Dibu post, he had to do 100 meter dash in 17 seconds, first on the trantrán and then with a ball in the middle, chased by half Croatia and having two bodyguards in front of him before sneaking into the final screen and scoring one of the goals of the World Cup.

One that strips him of his aura of promising world star, and that blew up the game in favor of Argentina in one of those delicate moments that Croatia takes advantage of to hit their rivals with the mallet, which is when they score and trust.

In the field, Julián Álvarez did not trust or trust himself,

and when he wanted to realize they were inside, literally, he and the ball in the Croatian goal.

And Argentina in the World Cup final, Leo Messi's second final.

Maradona also played two: one won it, another lost it.

Messi has arrived at the final hour.

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