It was one single moment of brilliance that denied Iran of what could have been a historic day in their history of football. The stoppage time winner from Lionel Messi left the Iranians dejected after they had put up one of the greatest shows in the history of world cup football.
There was no doubt about the team which would be playing a dominating role throughout the match. And there was no exception at all. But the only thing was that the Iranians did not let the Argentines any breathing space 
throughout the 90 minutes. In the first half Argentina enjoyed complete control of the proceedings but could not open the scoring, courtesy to the stout defending from the Iranians. The goalkeeper Haghighi played a major role in keeping the contest alive as he pulled out quite a number of saves out of nowhere. However the second half saw the Iranians getting more confident and they, instead of simply defending, were looking for scoring a goal. Sergio Romero, the argentine keeper, who did not have much to do in course of the match, did the necessary when he had to. He pulled out a spectacular save to deny Dejagah’s header tipping the ball over the crossbar. Few minutes he again came to the rescue when he had save a shot from one of the substitutes to keep Argentina in the hunt. But on the other side of the field a lackluster Argentina failed to find any sort of chance of scoring.
Just when it seemed that the match was settling for a stalemate, Lionel Messi came to the party. For only once the Iranians did not mark him properly and he seized that opportunity to curl the ball past the defenders and the diving keeper into the back of the net. Argentina 1: Iran 0. It was sheer heartbreak for Iran. He did not deserve to lose the match. A win for them would have been the perfect result; even a draw would have been a good reward for their excellent display. But it was not to be, especially 
when there is a Lionel Messi in the opponent playing eleven.
Argentina goes past the hurdle of the group stage scrappily with one more match against Nigeria still remaining. But they really need to pull up their game as they enter that phase of the tournament where the competition will get tougher.
Iran on the other hand is not looking good for their qualification despite their spirited performance against Argentina. Still they have already won a number of hearts with their neat football comprised of stout defending and occasional threatening counter attacks.
Tags: Argentina Argentina beat Iran Haghighi Iran Lionel Messi Sergio Romero
