Di María and Messi, the two idols of the National Team who live opposite realities in their teams

The yin and the yang. The good side and the bad side. The dark and the light. Lionel Messi and Ángel Di María were and are the symbols of the World Cup won by the National Team in Qatar. They are the last historic players of a generation that has accumulated almost two decades in the national team and they are also the ones who encouraged each other to continue, now that frustration has turned into veneration, celebration and joy.

However, from the World Cup until now, the reality of their teams shows an astonishing contrast: while Leo cannot save a lackluster and disappointing PSG alone or accompanied, Fideo is the figure of a Juventus that is far from its best moment , but at least progress.

This week the dual reality that unites and separates our two illustrious Rosarios became clear once again: one from Newell’s and the other from Central. Messi left crestfallen like all his teammates from the Allianz Arena in Munich, where PSG fell against Bayern and left a moral: money cannot buy a good team or mysticism. Because the Arab sheikhs can have all the money in the world, they can hire the best soccer players on the planet, but that does not guarantee that they will make a great team. Bayern, on the other hand, stood out: that solid teams are built with more ideas and projects than wallet.

Now, PSG only has Ligue 1 left, something they know a little about, although coach Christophe Galtier, more out of survival than conviction, says otherwise.

Juventus, who had been eliminated from the Champions League in the group stage, remains with illusions of winning the Europa League, while in Serie A Calcio is very far from the leader, Napoli, and even outside the qualifying zone. the next drinks.

The Italian team remains almost exclusively due to the performances of Di María. Last week, Fideo qualified for the Europa League round of 16 by scoring a hat trick against Nantes, in France, which gave the Italians a 3-0 victory.

The first of those three, 5 minutes into the first half, is to be passed on in the December programs with the great goals of the year: it was similar to the one he scored against Uruguay in the Qualifiers, but more spectacular due to the swing that took the ball. Later, in that same game, Di María scored from a penalty after a luxurious personal move that led to a handball from a Nantes defender and closed with a header, just in the same week that he had said that he had never learned to head.

It was the third hat trick in the Rosario’s career and it coincided that they all occurred in the month of February. The previous two were with Benfica in 2010 (4-0 over Leixoes in Portugal) and with Paris Saint Germain in 2018 (4-1 over Sochaux for the French Cup).

But this week, the streak continued. The one with goals and the one with headers. Because it was in this way that Di María gave Juve victory against Freiburg, for the first leg of the Europa League round of 16. El Noodle, of outstanding work, celebrated 8 minutes into the second half with a precise header.

Perhaps everything was intensified by what happened, almost simultaneously, with the PSG of Messi, Mbappé and company in the round of 16 of the Champions League, where the certainty that a team full of stars does not express itself in a great way was endorsed. team: Bayern Munich beat them 2-0 and left the French again in the middle of a storm.

Without specific collective weight, with Messi and Mbappé isolated and soulless, the petrodollar dream team was surpassed even more clearly than it had suffered in the Parque de los Príncipes. The global shows it: 3 to 0.

Unlike Di María in Italy, now in France everyone is pointing to Messi, the coach Galtier – who, as happened last year with Mauricio Pochettino, is already looking for a replacement – ​​Donnarumma and the team in general. Without confirmed renewal, Messi does not have too many certainties about his future. Something that has not yet happened to Di María.

PSG seeks relief against Brest

Outside of the Champions League, with a climate of internal tension for what could happen in the future, Paris Saint Germain – with Lionel Messi as the starter – will visit Brest today for date 27 of the French League, which they lead comfortably. It will be from 5:00 p.m. (Argentine time), with ESPN television, to get more advantage of his escort, Olympique de Marseille, who has eight points.

After the elimination in the Champions League round of 16 against Bayern, in which Messi and Kylian Mbappé were two of the most critical, the French club will seek to continue at the top against the modest team that has the Argentine goalkeeper Joaquín Blázquez in their campus.

Yesterday the Lyon of the defending Argentine world champion Nicolás Tagliafico and Lille opened the date. Today they will also play Auxerre-Rennes and tomorrow the day will be completed with Clermont-Lens (Facundo Medina), Lorient-Troyes, AC Ajaccio-Montpellier, Angers-Toulouse, Nantes-Nice, Monaco-Reims and Marseille (Leonardo Balerdi)-RC Strasbourg .