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Journalism of Courage
Argentina are naturally jubilant after their dominating performance against Croatia in the first semifinal of the FIFA World Cup on Tuesday night. And after that resounding victory, the fiery Argentinian players were shown celebrating in the locker room taunting perennial rivals Brazil and England.
According to the Spanish sports daily Mundo Deportivo, the La Albiceleste players sang victory songs which first took a dig at Brazil and then at England. A video shared on defender Nicolas Otamendi’s Instagram story showed the players singing, “Brazil, what happened? The five-time champion bowed. Messi went to Rio and took the cup,” referring to Argentina’s victory in the Copa América last year.
The players then turned their attention to England, who were also eliminated from the World Cup after losing to France in the quarterfinals, as they sang, “Damn Englishmen. We never forget the Malvinas Islands.”
The Malvinas Islands jibe referred to the Falklands War (Malvinas in Spanish), a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and its territorial dependency, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.
Against Croatia, Lionel Messi converted a penalty and played a part in the other two goals by Julián Álvarez — one with an outrageous piece of skill that brought roars of approval from Argentina’s huge following — to turn an initially tense occasion into a procession.
It will be Messi’s second World Cup final — Argentina lost the other one to Germany in 2014 — in what might be his last appearance at the tournament.
