The 2014 World Cup final at the Maracana Stadium, Rio de Janeiro was a night that Lionel Messi would never want to recall.
Argentina had a golden opportunity to win their third World Cup at their rivals Brazil's courtyard but it turned into a bad dream as they lost the final 1-0 to Germany. It was a close and nervy final with both Argentina and Germany fighting neck-to-neck. And both sides had the chance to win the match in normal time. Argentina had three major goalscoring opportunities in the match which fell to Gonzalo Higuain, Rodrigo Palacio and Messi himself but all three chances were wasted and Mario Gotze scored the fateful goal that gave Germany their fourth World Cup title.
Interestingly, it was at the Maracana, the venue of the 2014 final, that Messi woul finally win an international trophy for Argentina - the 2021 Copa America.
Let us take a look at the players who donned the Argentina shirt in the 2014 World Cup final against Germany.
Javier Mascherano is considered one of the greatest Argentina players of all time. The defensive midfielder came to Europe with West Ham United and then went on to represent the likes of Liverpool and FC Barcelona. He was the highest-capped Argentine footballer until 2021 when Lionel Messi surpassed his tally of 147 matches at the Copa America 2021.
He last played for Argentinean club Estudiantes before retiring in 2020. He is currently a part of player and team development department in the Argentina national team.