Raissa's Blog - Best of Sports, Culture, and Entertainment

Argentina have history with a historic, dramatic third World Cup crown (1978, 1986, 2022) - their first in 36 years. They beat reigning champions France in the FIFA World Cup final after extra time and penalties. France were completely subdued by Argentina in the first half during which Argentina scored two goals - Messi scored the first for Argentina in the 23rd minute from the penalty spot, and Angel Di Maria netted Argentina's second in the 36th minute. France came alive in the 80th minute of play with Kylian Mbappe converting from the penalty spot and scoring another in the 81st. The game went into extra time, with France seeming thirsty for another goal. Messi stepped up for Argentina and scored another goal in the 109th minute. Drama ensued as France was awarded a penalty, which Mbappe converted in the 118th minute to make the game level on 3-3.  Coming to the penalty shootout, Messi and Mbappe took the first for their respective teams, which they both netted. Penalty shoot-o...

Two-time world champions Argentina are en route to their sixth final in World Cup history, and this is largely thanks to Lionel Messi's excellence and Julian Alvarez's decisiveness in front of goal. Argentina beat Croatia 3-0 to reach their second World Cup final in eight years. Messi put Argentina on the path to victory in the 34th minute  with a perfectly struck penalty, and brilliantly created Argentina's third goal. Julian Alvarez scored Argentina's second goal of the night by taking Messi's header  just inside Croatian territory and embarking on a slaloming run and into the Livakovic's net. Messi's assist for Alvarez's second goal was superb; he twisted and turned past Croatia defender Josko Gvardiol in an eye-catching move before putting it on a plate for Alvarez to score . For the fourth time in this FIFA World Cup, Messi has been named Man of the Match, a feat achieved by no other player in the current World Cup tournament. He has scored goals in...

Argentina have made it through to the quarterfinals of the FIFA 2022 World Cup in a 2-1 win over Australia in the round of 16, to a greater extent thanks to a top notch performance from their captain and talisman Lionel Messi. Argentina struggled in the first thirty-five minutes of the Argentina vs Australia eight finals, with Messi quickly surrounded by the Socceroos every time he had the ball on his feet. However, Messi managed to keep Argentina's World Cup trophy alive in his 100th game as Argentina captain and 1,000th appearance in professional football with a much needed goal. A goal that happened to be Messi's first in the knockout stage of a World Cup. Messi is now only one goal shy of Gabriel Batistuta's record of 10 World Cup goals. Messi's performance was truly outstanding, as he completed 90% of his passes, created four chances and had nine touches in the opposition area. This has been rated Messi's best game so far in this World Cup. Messi is now t...

Argentina came into their second World Cup group fixture knowing a win was the only guarantee to keep alive their hopes of progressing past the group stage after their shocking 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their first fixture. Lionel Messi kept he and Argentina's dream of winning the World Cup with a 2-0 victory over Mexico at the Lusail stadium. Messi scored for Argentina in the 64th minute, from outside the box giving Argentina much needed hope to carry on.  "That's what they came for," Peter Drury said after Messi's goal. " The Magic Man !' One more Messi moment and Argentina are alive."  Enzo Fernandez further cemented Argentina's lead with a curling right-foot shot from a Messi assist in the 87th minute.  Messi has now equaled Diego Maradona's Argentina record of 21 matches and eight goals at the World Cup.  Messi has won all but one title in his career, and that is the World Cup. He came closest to winning it in 2014 when Argentina pla...

On Saturday, November 19 2022, football fans worldwide were blown away by a photo of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo playing chess.  Both Messi and Ronaldo took to Instagram to share the picture, which sees the legendary duo playing chess on Louis Vuitton briefcases. Messi equally shared the picture on his Facebook page. The picture went viral pretty fast on Instagram, racking up more than 10 million likes across Ronaldo and Messi's accounts in just over 30 minutes. Both players captioned the photo "Victory is a State of Mind." The picture was taken by the famous photographer Annie Leibovitz as an ad campaign for Louis Vuitton. Fans have long longed to see the duo play together. There's a possibility that Ronaldo and Messi face each other in the Qatar World Cup. Argentina plays its first match in the tournament against Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, and Portugal against Ghana on Thursday. In his explosive interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV,  Ronaldo talked abou...

On Wednesday October 5, PSG faced Benfica in a Champions League fixture and had to settle for a draw due to an own goal by midfielder Danilo Pereira who turned an Enzo Fernandez cross into his own net. Messi gave PSG the lead in the 22nd minute with a curling shot from an interplay with Neymar and Mbappe. Messi has now scored against 40 different opponents in the Champions League - Benfica being the 40th. Neymar's spectacular overhead kick in the 49th minute saw him hit the woodwork, and later attempted a free kick that was saved by Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos. PSG lead in their group, on seven points with second-placed Benfica, Juventus is third and Maccabi Haifa last. Maccabi Haifa suffered another defeat in their third Champions League fixture for the season. PSG and Benfica meet again in Paris next week.