French coach of Saudi Arabia Herve Renardwhose team defeated the Argentines in the 1st round of the group stage of the World Cup with a score of 2: 1, told how to play against Argentina and their striker Lionel Messi:

We didn’t focus specifically on Messi, but on him as part of the Argentina squad. You have to look at him in that context to analyze his zone of influence, to see how his balls come.

First of all we need to put pressure on Rodrigo de Paul, who in my opinion is one of the best in the Argentine squad. One of the most useful players who puts Messi in the best conditions. It is important because he compensates a lot on the right wing and his battles on the pitch free Messi from many tasks. When they lose the ball, de Paul is there to keep him out of defensive work. It is important to study all intermediate mechanisms.

When the ball is lost, the others work for Lionel. I won’t go into Scaloni’s secrets, but he freed him from all that work. When they play as a foursome, they have three midfielders working hard to supply Messi immediately. They look for it right away.

Until now, Leandro Paredes has started in the center. Enzo Fernandez has joined the squad alongside Alexis McAllister, who does excellent work on the left wing when he plays in defence.

All this is done to charge the link between de Paul and Messi to the right. Julian Alvarez also helps with this, which we saw especially clearly in the match against Croatia. This is one of the keys to Argentina. I knew de Paul before, but he shocked me with his impressive workload in this tournament.

The priority was to close the axis. I used my left flank and at least one midfielder. After all, it was him that I shook during a break in the locker room. He was often too far from Messi and you have to cover him immediately when he receives the ball. This is where you need to jump on him! 35 meters from the gate. He shouldn’t have freedom.

Argentina doesn’t use depth that often. They are more of a team in possession who will mainly attack through the center with the help of Messi. He starts on the right wing to reorient himself quickly and break away dangerously, but France can respond with Rabiot and Tchouameny.