Argentina defeated Croatia 3-0 in the 2022 FIFA World Cup semi-final match which was played at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar on Tuesday.
The win sees the Sky Blues reach the final where they will take on either France or Morocco, while the Blazers are eliminated from the competition.
Lionel Messi opened the scoring for Argentina from the spot in the 34th minute following Croatia goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic’s foul on the marauding Alvarez.
Alvarez doubled the lead five minutes later when he picked the ball up inside his own half and began a long dribble goalwards before firing past Livakovic.
The Manchester City youngster completed his brace in the 69th minute when he was set up by magical Messi before slotting the ball into the back of the net.
After the match, Argentina’s coach admitted it was a difficult task to pull a win against the 2018 World Cup finalists, Croatia.
“The truth is that the result maybe didn’t reflect the game. I think we deserved to win but maybe not by such a margin,” said Scaloni.
“They controlled possession at first, but we knew that could happen because they have three top-class midfielders who have been playing together for years and know each other very well.
“We understood that was how the game would go, but the game opened up with the penalty.”
Croatia boss Zlatko Dalic was left mourning after the loss as he questioned some of the decisions that were made by the referee in the match against Argentina.
“The first goal was very suspicious, to be honest,” Dalic said post-match.
“First, we had the situation with the corner. Apparently [we should have had] a corner, according to the reaction of our players. Then we had the situation with the penalty…it was a little bit too cheap and easy.”
Croatia will try to redeem their image when they face the loser of the match between Morocco and France in the third-place play-off to be played on Saturday.
