England had Lionel Messi under control … until one decisive and subtle shift

It was a statistically weird game for Argentina’s talisman against England, full of outliers. It didn’t matter Thomas Tuchel will have prepared for every eventuality before England’s match with Argentina. He will have considered how his team could prosper in attack while remaining solid in defence. What to change if they scored first or if the opening goal went against them and, like so many managers before him, he will have put plenty of thought into how best to deal with Lionel Messi. For the first hour he was largely peripheral, with the data showing how England were limiting his involvemen

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