Aguero hits back at Zlatan’s criticism of Argentina

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Argentina were the popular winner of the 2022 World Cup – mainly for the star man at the center of it all, Lionel Messi.

The 35-year-old has finally added a World Cup title to his collection, in what will likely prove to be the last tournament outing for the PSG star.

The Argentinian team, however, was criticized for the way they behaved during the tournament.

Shithousery was the name of the game for the Argentines, who beat the Netherlands and France on penalties en route to World Cup glory. Goalkeeper Emi Martinez was slammed by France keeper Hugo Lloris for his antics in the final, while some of the home celebrations took a bad turn against France star Kylian Mbappé.

41-year-old AC Milan striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the latest to speak out against Argentina’s antics at the World Cup – and he appears to have sparked a war of words with the former Manchester City man and Argentina’s Sergio Aguero.

Agüero vs Zlatan: Legendary forwards clash in Argentina feud

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s quality as a player is such that it’s hard to believe he only played in two World Cups in his career, in 2002 and 2006. Sweden’s failure to qualify for the 2022 tournament ended Zlatan’s wish to compete in the biggest tournament one last time.

However, he seems to have followed the debates in Qatar closely, judging by an interview with French radio France Inter.

Ibrahimovic was asked to comment on his former Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi and his achievement in finally winning the World Cup. Zlatan hailed Messi as the greatest player of all time but criticized Argentina’s antics throughout the tournament:

Messi has won everything and he will be remembered. The rest [of the Argentina squad] who behaved badly, we cannot respect that.

It comes from me, as a top professional player, it’s a sign that you will win once, but you won’t win again. You don’t win like that.

Ibrahimovic’s comments are strong, but he’s not the first to criticize the Argentine team’s ‘bad behaviour’ at the World Cup.

A particular flashpoint saw Leandro Paredes fire the ball past the Netherlands bench in a tense quarter-final, before the Argentinian side shoved past the Dutch after advancing on penalties.

1-2 Yellow for Leandro Paredes after that Watch live now on @RTE2 and @RTEplayer: https://t.co/2a31t0nJdXLive updates: https://t.co/WYLR1TyMV2#FifaWorldCup #NEDARG #rtsoccer pic.twitter.com /gDJMkBgaDh

RT Soccer (@RTEsoccer) December 9, 2022

One man who couldn’t be on the pitch for Argentina during the World Cup, but was always there behind the scenes, was Sergio Aguero.

The Premier League legend was forced to retire from football due to a heart condition at the end of 2021, just months after signing for Barcelona.

Argentina asked Aguero to travel to Qatar and stay with the team throughout the tournament, having scored crucial goals for them in the previous three editions of the tournament.

Clearly taking Zlatan’s comments to heart, Aguero has now responded publicly. Aguero slammed the Swede’s comments, before taking a swipe at his absence from the tournament in Qatar.

Aguero made the comments on his Twitch stream, and some cross the line between petulance and outright disgust:

Saying they misbehaved – you’re the last one to say. It sounds like bad blood to say that we are not going to win more.

I think that before worrying about Argentina, you could worry about your own country, your own players, who didn’t even take part in the last World Cup.

You are a fighter. I remember you fought with Otamendi in a match between City and United. You argued with Pep Guardiola. I guess that’s why he wanted to sell you from Barcelona.

I guess to talk about how badly Argentina did, you first have to look at your career to see if you did well. And I don’t think you behaved well.

Did I kill Zlatan? He killed my teammates. He’s more capable of you talking to me too because I was there.

We are the world champions Zlatan, and you want to kill yourself.

A quite extraordinary rant from Aguero, and which goes well beyond the general criticism of Argentina by Zlatan.

Zlatan is no stranger to public bickering or the center of attention, but Aguero’s comments are some of the harshest we’ve ever seen in a spat of this nature.

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