Argentina's three goals, all from Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez, propel them to the World Cup final, where they will play either France or Morocco on Sunday. After Messi's penalty kick caused Croatia to falter, Alvarez scored twice to secure the victory.
By scoring for Argentina in a 3-0 victory over Croatia at the Lusail Iconic Stadium to advance to the final, Lionel Messi gave himself one final chance to win the World Cup. Julian Alvarez also scored for Argentina.
On Sunday, they'll take on either France or Morocco, who are participating in Wednesday's semifinal.
Messi opened the scoring against the odds from the penalty spot (34’) after Man City striker Alvarez was awarded a questionable penalty following a foul.
With the goal, the 35-year-old overcame Gabriel Batistuta to take the lead with 11 goals for Argentina in the World Cup finals.
After conceding the first goal, Croatia crumbled, and five minutes later, Argentina scored another thanks to some laughable defending as Alvarez doubled their advantage (39’), carrying the ball out of his own half.
In order to ensure that the game was beyond doubt, Messi took matters into his own hands. He performed a moment of magic down the right to defeat Josko Gvardiol before putting the ball on the table for Alvarez to score Argentina's third goal.
Game Breakdown
Argentina hasn't won the World Cup since Diego Maradona led his country to victory in Mexico in 1986, when they last made it to the final in Brazil in 2014 and lost to Germany.
In the first 30 minutes, Croatia dominated, and Messi mostly went unnoticed as he crossed the field at the Lusail Iconic Stadium and waited for his teammates to get going.
Just after the halfway point, Alvarez earned a penalty that completely changed the course of the game.
Argentina's easy pass over the top took Croatia off guard, and Alvarez was taken down by Livakovic after pushing the ball beyond the goalkeeper.
Argentina took the lead after Messi converted from the penalty spot, just as he had against the Netherlands in the previous round.
After first being so resilient, Croatia began to lose their composure and suffered another setback five minutes later when Alvarez carried the ball from his own half and calmly finished past Livakovic after surviving two challenges in the area.
Celtic right defender Possibly by accident, the ball bounced off of Josip Juranovic and back into Alvarez's path, but Borna Sosa gave way under the pressure and let the 22-year-old get through on goal despite flailing his leg in vain.
In an effort to change the tide of the match, Croatia substituted Bruno Petkovic, who scored an extra-time equalizer in stoppage time in last week's quarterfinal penalty shootout victory over Brazil. However, Messi had other plans.
The Paris Saint-Germain forward turned the 20-year-old inside out with a mesmerizing run down the right flank before cutting it back to Alvarez from the byline, determined to give himself one more chance to win the one prize that has escaped him.
The Man City forward became the youngest player to score twice in a World Cup semifinal or final since Pele in 1958 as he made no errors from just outside the six-yard box.