Qatar 2022: Magical Messi shoots Argentina into quarter final
Lionel Messi marked his 1,000th game with a crucial goal as Argentina beat Australia 2-1 to advance to the World Cup quarterfinals.
Captaining his national team for the 100th time, Messi ignited this last-16 match midway through the first half, curling home cutely after some neat build-up play.
In the second half, Julián Álvarez capitalized on some slack goalkeeping by Australia stopper Mat Ryan to score his second goal of the tournament and extend Argentina’s lead.
Just when it looked like Argentina might run away with proceedings, Craig Goodwin’s deflected strike from outside the box nestled in the bottom corner to set up an exciting finale, but Argentina was able to hold out.
Aziz Behich looked as if he might snatch an unlikely equalizer but Lisandro Martinez’s last-dtich tackle deflected the Australian defender’s shot following a slaloming run past a succession of Argentina defenders.
The victory means Argentina will face the Netherlands on Friday in the quarterfinals, after the Dutch beat the US Men’s National Team 3-1 earlier on Saturday.
