Lionel Messi is probably one of the greatest soccer players of all time. It is not easy for any coach to have a good plan to stop him, but fortunately for Jurgen Klinsmann, Germany’s coach at the 2006 FIFA World Cup, he did not have to use his emergency strategy during the Quarter-Finals against Argentina.
It is known that Jurgen Klinsmann is a huge fan of Lionel Messi and what he has done through his whole career. The Argentinian forward, who now plays for PSG, was a rising star during the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but his true potential was not shown as he did not have so many minutes on the field for his squad.
16 years have passed since the Germany 2006, but Klinsmann does not forget what he lived during the whole tournament. The host team was able to make it through the round of 16 and the Quarter-Finals, but they lost to Italy in Semi-Finals. Despite that, he knows he had some luck against Argentina to get into the best four national teams of that FIFA World Cup.
Jurgen Klinsmann revealed the key factor which helped Germany defeat Argentina in the 2006 FIFA World Cup
During a media round table, Jurgen Klinsmann was asked about the 2006 FIFA World Cup and the game between germany and Argentina in the Quarter-Finals. The coach revealed that he was relieved when he knew that Lionel Messi was not going to play against them.
“I was very happy Messidid not enter that day”, said the Bundesliga legend with a laughter in between. “It was a dramatic Quarter-Final, like a little movie script as well that happened just in one game. It ended in a penalty shootout and we obviously were lucky to go through those penalties. It is one of those games that you could discuss up and down, again and again. I was extremely happy that Messi did not enter the stage.”
At that time, Lionel Messi, at it was said before, was a rising star in soccer, so he was not in the starting XI for Argentina during the World Cup. The rest is history, but there are some personalities, like in this case Jurgen Klinsmann, that think that the forward could have change things up for his national team in that tournament.