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 their quarter-final 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.
Newly 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 rejigged 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% I think that I am going to be on holiday.”
His career total of international appearances seemed destined to stay stalled on 37, a total that included appearing in every one of Diego Maradona’s sides at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa during a run that ended at the quarter-final stage with a crushing 4-0 defeat by Germany.
But despite his humiliation against Barcelona, Pellegrini never lost faith in Demichelis and he proved his worth in the run that took Manchester City to the title. The turning point arguably came on 15 March against Hill City at the KC Stadium. When Vincent Kompany, who was also on the losing side for Belgium on Saturday, was sent off, Demichelis led his side to a 2-0 victory through force of will.
Sabella had been monitoring his form and had been in touch with the player to gauge his fitness and desire. When his long list was announced, Demichelis was a surprise inclusion and he kept his spot when it was whittled down to the final 23.
“I didn’t imagine that I was going to be talking about a recall,” the defender said then. “This season has ended in the best way for me after we won the Premier League. My recall was a surprise, but with a big desire. I think that I am in a great moment.”
After joining his team-mates celebrating on the pitch in Brasília, he said he had never given up hope of pulling on the shirt for Argentina again. “You always hope to play,” Demichelis said. “I was showing a lot of heart in practice and tried to get to the place where I would get called up.”
Now thoughts will turn to how to shackle Holland’s Robin van Persie and, in particular, Arjen Robben. Both teams, imperfect in defence but intermittently ravishing in attack, increasingly feel that destiny is on their side.
For Demichelis, his unlikely resurrection offers the opportunity to banish memories of 2006, when he narrowly and unexpectedly missed out on the squad at the last minute, and the disappointment of the chaotic 2010 campaign.
In that same interview when he wrongly predicted that he would be on a beach rather than lining up in the last four of the tournament, he said: “I would like to have a kind of personal revenge on the World Cup.”