Liverpool was guaranteed to have a player on the winning side in the World Cup final, and unfortunately for Alexis Mac Allister, it is Victor Munoz who will return from the US with a gold medal.<\/p>\n
Argentina frustrated Spain for large periods of the game, but there was no doubt that the right team won in the end, with Ferran Torres finding the back of the net to break the deadlock in the 106th minute.<\/p>\n
How did Mac Allister fare, though, and what did the Argentine media make of their team\u2019s performance? Unsurprisingly, Lionel Messi was the main focus after a quiet outing \u2014 but the Liverpool man didn\u2019t completely escape the spotlight.<\/p>\n
TyC Sports gave Mac Allister a 5\/10 rating, which was one point above Enzo Fernandez and Rodrigo de Paul, and level with Messi and Julian Alvarez.<\/p>\n
\u201cSimilar to his midfield teammates, positioned towards the left and also keeping an eye on Rodri alongside Julian, Alexis this time couldn\u2019t break free from his more defensive role and had to focus on containing and tracking back,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis meant Argentina lost the opportunity to unleash one of their most potent attacking players. He also failed to effectively challenge the Spanish midfielders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexis Mac Allister of Argentina kicks the ball during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Final match between Spain and Argentina at New York New Jersey Stadium on July 19, 2026 in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Photo by Jose Breton\/Pics Action\/NurPhoto via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Of the substitutes, Nahuel Molina picked up a rating of 3\/10, while Giuliano Simeone made it four Argentina players who got a lower mark than Mac Allister, by getting a four.<\/p>\n
ESPN was harsher on Mac Allister, noting that he could easily have been sent off for two bookable offenses. The Liverpool man left a foot in a couple of times in the first half.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was very lucky to get away without a yellow card after a very late challenge on Dani Olmo, and again when he handled the ball,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n
Rather cuttingly, it added: \u201cHe looked uncomfortable all evening.\u201d<\/p>\n
While most of the coverage was about Messi\u2019s likely last World Cup appearance and the fights that happened at the final whistle as tensions boiled over, Mac Allister\u2019s performance wasn\u2019t allowed to completely go under the radar by Goaleither.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral fouls and some decent defensive contributions, but did very little to seize control of the game,\u201d was its succinct assessment. That just about summed it up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool was guaranteed to have a player on the winning side in the World Cup final, and unfortunately for Alexis Mac Allister, it is Victor Munoz who will return from the US with a gold medal. Argentina frustrated Spain for large periods of the game, but there was no doubt that the right team won …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/FB_IMG_1784830489254.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11954"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11956,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11954\/revisions\/11956"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11955"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11954"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11954"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/evutisblog.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11954"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}