Manuel Pellegrini may have been among those affording himself a wry smile as Martín Demichelis stiffened a hitherto shaky Argentina defence on Saturday and helped his country break its quarterfinal hoodoo.
When Demichelis was blowing hard and trying in vain to plug the gaping holes in Manchester City’s midfield as Eden Hazard delighted in the freedom of a cold Etihad in early February during a 1-0 Premier League victory for Chelsea, it was hard to imagine the 33-year-old appearing again in a sky blue shirt let alone the famous stripes of the Albiceleste .
The latter seemed less likely still when he was given the task of marking his international team-mate Lionel Messi in the Champions League a fortnight later and Twitter erupted in ridicule. “That’s like putting a flip flop outside your front door to stop a flood,” was one typical offering.
Demichelis duly gave away a penalty for a foul on Messi and was sent off in a match that Barcelona went on to win 2-0. Yet there he was in the Estádio Nacional at the heart of a defence which looked more secure for his presence and organisational skills, providing a platform for Messi to torment the Belgium defence and help secure a 1-0 victory.
Hazard, for his part, shuffled off the pitch in the 75th minute having failed to make much of a dent on a tournament in which Belgium’s coach, Marc Wilmots, had hoped he would establish himself as one of the top five players in the world.
Slotting in perfectlyNewly shorn of his trademark ponytail, Demichelis slotted into central defence in place of the dropped Federico Fernández in a new look back four. José Basanta came in at left-back for the suspended Marcos Rojo, one of the only members of Alejandro Sabella’s shaky back line to emerge from the group stages with credit. But the changes worked, with Lucas Biglia — in for the dropped Fernando Gago — and Javier Mascherano forming an effective midfield shield for the re-jigged defence.
Yet even in his native Argentina few suspected that the veteran Demichelis — who made his name during eight seasons at Bayern Munich and was a trusted cog in Pellegrini’s Málaga side before following him to the Etihad — would be here in Brazil.
Before Sabella named his 30-man provisional squad, Demichelis had not appeared for his country since being blamed for the goal conceded in a 1-1 draw in a qualifying match with Bolivia in November 2011. In all, he appeared in only two qualifying matches.
Asked by the Argentinian TV channel TyC Sports in April where he saw himself in the summer he said: “Where do I see myself during the World Cup? I am 95 per cent I think that I am going to be on holiday.” When Sabella’s long list was announced, Demichelis was a surprise inclusion and he kept his spot when it was whittled down to the final 23. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2014
