Josko Gvardiol has broken his silence on Lionel Messi after Croatia lost to Argentina in 2022 World Cup semifinals.
The Croatia left-back took pride from facing Lionel Messi despite being on the wrong end of a masterclass by the Argentine superstar in Croatia’s World Cup semi-final defeat.
Croatia had hope to make it to their second successive World Cup final after they bundled out tournament favorites Brazil in the quarterfinals of the tournament via penalty shootout.
The Croats set up a semifinal class with Argentina after the victory over Brazil.
It was a disappointing game for Croatia as they suffered a 3-0 defeat against the Argentines. Lionel Messi was phenomenal in the game, but his last masterclass assist for Julian Alvarez changed Josko Gvardiol from a celebrated hero into a villain.
Gvardiol marked Lionel Messi one-on-one in the buildup to the third goal.
The Croatian – ranked as one of the best young defenders in the world – was taught a football lesson by Messi who produced arguably the assist of the tournament in a 3-0 victory for Argentina.
Messi stopped the ball in his feet and drove up the right flank, turning his marker Gvardiol inside and out, before getting to the byline and setting up Julian Alvarez for the final goal of the game.
As Croatia gear up for their third-place play-off against Croatia, the 20-year-old RB Leipzig defender – a target for Chelsea – has spoken out on his experience of coming up against Messi.
‘I am glad that I played against him even though we lost’, Gvardiol.
‘It’s a great experience, and one day I’ll tell my kids that I played against the best player in history. I guess we will beat him next time.’
While Croatia gear up for Morocco in the losers final, Messi and Argentina get ready to play France in the World Cup final on Sunday.
Messi has admitted this will be his final World Cup game, meaning that it will be his last shot at adding the World Cup to his illustrious list of honours in the game.
Josko Gvardiol
Born on 23 January 2002 in Zagreb, Croatia, Josko Gvardiol is a professional Croatian footballer who plays as a defender for Croatia’s national team and Bundesliga club RB Leipzig.
Gvardiol started his youth career at Tresnjevka before joining Dynamo Zagreb still in his youth career in 2010.
He played for Dinamo Zagreb youth team for 9 years, before making his appearance in Dinamo Zagreb II. Between 2019 to 2020, Gvardiol played for Dinamo Zagreb main team before joining RB Leipzig of Germany in 2021.
In 2020, Gvardiol was sent on loan to his former club Dinamo Zagreb, where he made 23 appearances, scoring 3 goals.
Since making his debut for the Croatian national team in 2021 Gvardiol has been capped 18 times, and has scored one goal.
He has won the Croatian Cup and Super Cup, inclining the 2021-22 DFB-Pokal with RB Leipzig.
