Julian Alvarez has been one of the shining stars of the FIFA world cup 2022 and played an important role as Argentina beat France on penalties to claim the World Cup for the first time since 1986.
The young City forward, coming into the tie on the back of an outstanding individual tournament, started once again for Lionel Scaloni’s in Lusail before being replaced by Lautaro Martinez.
While La Albiceleste were the dominant force for almost 80 minutes, they ultimately had to do it the hard way after two goals in the space of three minutes from Kylian Mbappe cancelled out Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria’s first half strikes to force extra time.
Messi tap home on the rebound in the 109th minute to seemingly see the Argentines over the line, but Mbappe once again draw the French level from the spot in the 116th minute.
It meant that a truly outstanding match, worthy of its grand occasion, was decided by the lottery of a penalty shootout, with misses from Kingsley Coman and Aurelien Tchouameni handing Alvarez and co. a third-ever World Cup triumph as Pep Guardiola had predicted.
What did Pep Guardiola tell Julian Alvarez about Argentina winning the World Cup?
Julian Alvarez revealed in October that Pep Guardiola predicted Argentina would be the favourites to win the World Cup.
In an interview with ESPN, the £14.1 million ace discussed how Guardiola was the only one at the club to rightly predict that Argentina would be the biggest contenders to lift the World Cup trophy.
“They [the players] were in the locker room chatting about the candidates to win the World Cup and they mentioned Portugal, France, all the teams from here [Europe].”
“I didn’t say anything. And Guardiola told them, ‘Do you know who has the most chance best chance? He pointed at me.”
Pep knew, Pep knows.
Pep Guardiola always knew that Julian Alvarez and his fellow countrmen would win the World Cup.
Pep Guardiola’s football IQ does not come as a surprise, as he is hailed as one of the game’s greatest ever coaches for a reason
Julian Alvarez Stats At The World Cup
Julian has been probably the Third-best player for Argentina in this FIFA World Cup 2022 after Lionel Messi and Enzo Fernandez. He scored 4 goals and is just behind Mbappe & Messi who are the top scorers of the world cup with 8 and 7 goals respectively.
Additionally, he has impressed many people with his work ethic and ability to press relentlessly during matches. He is very much a complete number 9 that every coach dream of having on his team. Surely, he will always be remembered as one of the heroes as Argentine wins the FIFA World Cup 2022.
