From the final whistle of Argentina-Croatia (3-0) on Tuesday evening, an impressive crowd, thousands, very quickly tens of thousands, began to converge on the Obelisk, an iconic monument in the center of Buenos Aires and traditional place of celebrations. In the crowd, flags, smoke bombs, and against a background of horns, between the songs, a recurring clamor: “Meees-si, Meees-si! “. And present, at the very top, the “god” Diego (Maradona, who died in 2021), whom a song composed for the World Cup and which became the 2022 hit for supporters, from Doha to Rosario, takes part in the adventure: “And Dieeego, in the sky we can see it […] encourage Lionel…”
“Wonderful, happy, moved. I feel all that. It’s yet another final. We have a wonderful team. And a real national pride: Messi”, articulated, voice broken, Evelyn Rios, a 26-year-old student, in the din of the Obelisk. “I would like us to play against France in the final. For revenge”, admits Ramiro Monteiro with a greedy smile, referring to the quarter-final lost by Argentina at the 2018 World Cup (4-3). “Now yes. With a team like this, we can beat them, ”said Cristian Oberolser.