Argentina urged to consider immediate transfer of Lionel Messi after making unwanted World Cup history
Argentina have been urged to consider replacing their penalty taker after Lionel Messi’s latest miss.
The 39-year-old saw his spot kick saved by Mostafa Shobeir during their 3-2 win over Egypt on Tuesday.
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Although Messi later scored, his second penalty miss at this summer’s World Cup has sparked debate over who should go up to Argentina.
By failing to score from 12 yards again, Messi became the first player to miss two penalties during the same World Cup.
This comes after he scored during Argentina’s group stage win over Austria.
Messi has now missed 34 of his 150 penalties throughout his career.
In that World Cup, he has taken eight, without scoring, he scored four and missed four.
Should Messi be ruled out of penalties?
talkSPORT’s Jason Cundy believes there is a discussion to be had about whether Argentina should change their penalties.
He responded to Messi’s latest miss at the World Cup GameDay Sports Bar following the match.
Asked if he should be released from the sanctions, Cundy explained: “I don’t know if you can, but there is a discussion that needs to be discussed.”
“You missed four. You missed two in this tournament. The numbers don’t lie do they?”
However, he added: “If it’s really important, like in the World Cup finals, you can’t say no, right?
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“If you want Messi to save your life. You have someone to save your life, I’m going Messi. I’m here.
“Whatever happens to me, if Messi misses, you have to go, ‘well’, they will miss him.”
Messi later made up for his penalty miss with an equalizer as Argentina came back from two goals down to reach the quarter-finals.
In doing so, he extended his World Cup scoring streak to 21, now scoring nine goals in a row at the tournament.
View from Argentina
The debate over his status as a penalty payer has also raged in Argentina.
Former Newell’s Old Boys defender Matias Fondato spoke to the World Cup Breakfast on Wednesday.
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Fondato asked who would consider taking Argentina’s penalties from Messi.
He admitted: “That was one of the main discussions with all my friends and everyone today. It’s very strange because how can you tell Messi not to do that?
“But I think he’s humble in that way. I think he himself can make things easier for everybody and say, ‘Okay, next thing, somebody else do it.’
“He’s not a guy who needs to score goals to prove anything to anybody. So it’s weird. I wouldn’t mind if he wanted to do it, but for me it’s the same. We’re giving him everything.”
If not Messi, who?
Gabby Agbonlahor also expects the responsibility to stay with Messi when they go to their last eight game against Switzerland.
The talkSPORT presenter said: “All the debate about whether Messi will take the next penalty?
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“He’ll say to himself, ‘okay, come on, wakey, wakey, I can shoot penalties. I can put the ball in any part of the net from 30, 40 yards’.
“He’s going to take that next penalty. He’s not going to put that burden on someone else. He’s going to be like, ‘OK, I missed four out of eight penalties in the World Cup, but I’m taking this one.'”
Jeff Stelling was less convinced, however, believing the pressure is now too high on Messi to land his next penalty.
He added: “I think that’s a lot of pressure on him from his point of view.
“I think he will go up next time, he will have a lot of thoughts in his head.”
On who should replace them, Stelling said: “You have penalty takers. Alexis Mac Allister took penalties at Brighton. He took penalties at Liverpool.”
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Argentina will face Switzerland in the quarterfinals, which will start at 2 am on Sunday in the United Kingdom.
The winner of that match will face England or Norway in the final four on Wednesday, July 15.
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