Lionel Messi marked his glorious night in his 1000th career appearance with a sumptuous goal to help Argentina beat Australia 2-1 in the World Cup round of 16 at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Saturday.
Messi picked up the ball up from the edge of the box, strode forward a bit before beautifully curling it past Matthew Ryan at the bottom corner in the 35th minute.
The great man archetypally wheeled away to celebrate, to mark what was a historical night for him, who, not only him, but the world wants to see him win the World Cup to come close to the legendary status of his former coach Diego Maradona.
The late Maradona, regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, single-handedly led Argentina to the World Cup title in 1986 in Mexico. One will never forget Maradona’s two goals against Belgium in the semi finals 36 years ago.
Messi has struggled to transfer his club success to the international standard to be compared with Maradona. This goal was his first in the knockout stages in the World Cup.
Surprisingly, of course he won’t mind, Messi was played as the focal point up top, supported by Julian Alvarez and Alejandro Gomez, though at times they interchange the role.
Although he wasn’t getting the service he desired as he normally knits things together, Messi wasn’t denied to mark the glorious day. After what was a tame first half where Argentina was denied spaces by Australia to break through, Messi lit up the occasion with a moment of magic. Of course only he can do it.
Messi slid a sumptuous finish to see him go one ahead of Maradona as this goal was his ninth in the World Cups.
Alvarez was handed a gift to score the second, punishing Ryan who was put in the panic mood to play from the back and the Manchester City forward stole the ball before finishing it off in the 57th minute in the empty net.
Australia got a slice of fortune to pull one back as Craig Goodwin’s deflected shot from Enzo Fernandes sent Argentina in the panic.
With 10 minutes left, left-back Aziz Behich almost spoiled Messi’s night with a mazy run, but Lisandro Martinez produced a last ditch tackle to cut the danger to spare the 2014 World Cup losing finalists’ blushes.
Argentina will now meet the Netherlands in the quarter finals, a repeat of the semi final of eight years ago in Brazil where Albicelente won on penalties, on Friday.
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Louis Van Gaal was the coach then of the Dutch, who went on to win the bronze medal by beating Brazil 3-0 in the third and fourth playoff on Friday.
The Dutch are in the quarter finals after they beat USA 3-1 earlier on Saturday.
