‘Winning the World Cup is like playing Bingo and all your numbers coming up! It allows you to breathe in another way.’
Argentina and Lyon left-back Nico Tagliafico is testing out his English and doing pretty well.
‘The medal and the two shirts I wore in the final are safely stored, even though I didn’t wash them,’ he adds, thinking back to Qatar ’22 and the penalty shootout win over France. ‘I wanted to keep them with all the essence of Lusail Stadium. I wouldn’t trade them for anything.
‘Football gives you many difficult moments in life but winning the World Cup allowed me to enjoy football a little more.’
Not that Tagliafico is taking the prospect of facing Manchester United in the Europa League quarter-final on Thursday night lightly. The fire remains. You would expect little else from a man nicknamed ‘Samurai’ for his love of the Japanese warrior spirit and culture.
And not least because he still bears the scars of his previous encounter with British opposition in Europe – when Tottenham launched a stunning comeback to beat Ajax on their way to the Champions League final in 2019.
World Cup winner Nicolas Tagliafico caught up with Mail Sport ahead of Lyon’s clash with Manchester United
The high-scoring left-back says playing as a team can help overcome household names
He says Argentina team-mate Alejandro Garnacho needs ‘more support’ at Old Trafford
Lucas Moura’s 96th minute hat-trick goal that night ensured victory on away goals and a memory Tagliafico still describes as ‘the worst moment in my football career’.
A youthful Ajax, under a certain Erik ten Hag, had already disposed of Real Madrid and Juventus en route to the semi-final and had been in control.
‘That was a difficult moment,’ says Tagliafico, who played alongside Andre Onana, Matthijs de Ligt and Noussair Mazraoui that night.
‘We were a young team and maybe we relaxed. It was really strange that last 45 minutes. It shouldn’t have been possible, but those experiences make you more mature.
‘There is a Japanese proverb, Nanakorobi yaoki: you fall down seven times, but you will stand up eight. In other words, you get up, you keep going.
‘I used to feel the pressure of needing to win a trophy, a sort of ”how can I live with this?” But after winning the biggest, the World Cup, it has helped me with perspective.
‘To play teams such as Real Madrid, Juventus, and now Manchester United, they are all beautiful challenges I look forward to and enjoy. Of course I’d enjoy them more by winning.’
The mention of playing under Ten Hag begs the question: why does Tagliafico think his former boss failed at Old Trafford?
Winning the World Cup in 2022 allowed him to ‘to breathe in another way,’ Tagliafico explains
United travel to Lyon in the Europa League after beating Real Sociedad in the last 16
Tagliafico still wants to play in the Premier League and was twice shortlisted by Man United
‘Making that move from Ajax is not easy. United is a big club with big pressures. Erik is a smart guy, very good on tactics and strategy. But at Ajax he had young players who would follow his moves, when you meet new players with more experience. It’s not always easy to get them to follow in the same way.
It’s difficult to understand fully because I wasn’t in the dressing room.’
Tagliafico could have been though. Twice United have had him on shortlists in recent seasons, Arsenal too, but deals failed to reach fruition. At 32, and out of contract in the summer, he still harbours ambition to play in the Premier League, one he describes as the ‘hardest in the world’.
He knows as much from his Argentine friends, United’s Lisandro Martinez and Aston Villa’s ‘good, crazy’ keeper Emi Martinez.
Talking from his Lyon home, in sight of the River Rhone, Tagliafico watched last Sunday’s Manchester derby but wasn’t surprised by its tepid nature.
‘Sometimes football is like chess where you are trying to find openings. It requires concentration but may be boring to watch. Manchester City are not in their best moment but United were smart. They set up a system to try and recover the ball and counter-attack.’
United’s toothless attack could be viewed as an advantage for Lyon ahead of Thursday’s first leg, but Tagliafico has been here before.
‘They still have really good players. Experience tells me you must focus for more than 90 minutes with these games.
The tepid nature of the recent derby did not surprise him; he describes football as ‘chess’
‘If you leave a gap, they can still kill you. Bruno Fernandes is in good shape, he has great quality on the ball and Alejandro Garnacho I know is very dangerous in one-on-one situations, really fast. On paper they may look like they have the better household names but it’s about who is the best team.’
Garnacho remains an enigma in a United shirt and Tagliafico believes his compatriot may benefit from a different approach.
‘I saw good qualities when he first stepped into the team but with a new coach and different styles, he has maybe lost a bit of confidence. When you miss this as a winger and at club like United, it’s not easy.
‘I know he has had some difficult moments under the coach but maybe he needs more support on the pitch.
‘Sometimes it is more about communication. When a winger plays in front of me, I like to talk to him. Encourage him to take on one v one more or say when to tuck in. He is still very young. Maybe that’s what he needs more at United. But he is very fast, he has talent. For sure he can be a star.’
Tagliafico should know a thing or two about wingers. As a left-back he has spent many a training session trying to avoid being twisted inside out by the likes of Lionel Messi and Angel Di Maria.
‘Training against Messi is a bit like shadow boxing. I like to leave my shadow as close to him as possible. We try to stop him without kicking him, we don’t want to injure our best player! It’s so difficult, you rarely take the ball off him.
‘But training for our national team is so hard with all of the players. We each try to do our best so it’s sometimes more difficult to play in those sessions than the games. It’s more enjoyable to play the games.’
Training hard is an example he likes to set at Lyon and one shared by Martinez. The two played together at Ajax as well as in the World Cup winning squad. Fatherhood and injury have sidelined Martinez of late but the two will be in touch over the next few days. ‘Maybe we will get together over a barbecue – in true Argentine style.’