Manuel Lanzini capped a successful 24 hours for himself, West Ham United and Argentina with a sensational goal in the Irons’ 3-1 victory at Udinese.
The No10 scored what turned out to be the winner in north-eastern Italy with a trademark 25-yard strike that whistled into the top left-hand corner – the latest in a series of wonder-goals he has scored in his seven-plus seasons in Claret and Blue.
The goal and win came just a day after Lanzini had watched with a mixture of nerves and excitement as Argentina took and then squandered a two-goal lead to the Netherlands in their FIFA World Cup quarter-final, before ultimately securing their last-four place by winning a penalty shootout.
For the five-cap midfielder, seeing so many players who he has shared a dressing room and pitch with, including Lionel Messi, put his country within 180 minutes of winning a third World Cup was a source of pride and joy.
Looking ahead, the 29-year-old is focused on not just getting himself match-fit for the restart of the 2022/23 Premier League season at Arsenal on Boxing Day, scoring more screamers and helping the Hammers climb the table, but on seeing his compatriots go all the way to glory in Qatar.
It was good for me and good for the team because it was our second friendly game that we’ve had and it’s good to win and good for us.
Of course, we want to play like this. We work for this, to create chances, to play well and to have the ball because that’s important for the team, because when we have the ball we will have more chances to win the game.
In this game, we played well, and we deserved to win.
For my goal, I saw the opportunity to shoot, so I shoot and I think it was a little bit lucky!
I try to do this and when I see the moment to shoot, I shoot, and luckily for me it was a goal.
I work hard to be able to do this. In training, I practice and that’s very important, both for us and for young players who are trying to learn new skills like this.
Practice is important and that’s it. You have to practice in training, but also in games you need to not be afraid to try it.
Of course, I watched Argentina play on Friday night and I enjoyed it in the end!
I was a little bit scared after Holland’s second goal, but I think this Argentina team has a very good spirit and very good players and that is very important.
They are a very good group and they’re going to give everything on the pitch.
They have everything to go to the final, but it’s football so you never know, but the spirit and passion they give is unbelievable.
In football, you can lose matches, but the effort they are giving is incredible.
