Lionel Messi’s last chance to win the World Cup is still alive after Argentina won 2-1 in their first knockout match against Australia to set up their quarter-final date with the Netherlands on Friday at 2pm ET. Lionel Scaloni’s team won with a convincing performance against Socceroo, despite some late wavering in front of one of the tournament’s surprises so far. The beginning of the match was not as easy as expected. Both Argentina and Australia were defensive and made sure not to concede the opening goal. It was the magic of Leo Messi’s left foot that was needed to open the scoring in such a match and it happened after thirty-five minutes as the Argentine star scored with the first shot of the game.
Incredibly, this was Leo Messi’s first goal during a World Cup knockout match, in the 1,000th match of his career. With this goal, which was his ninth goal in the World Cup overall, he surpassed Diego Maradona’s eight as the best scorer for Argentina in the World Cup and trailed only Gabriel Batistuta (10). The second half started with an unexpected change a few minutes after the match had restarted as Argentina coach Scaloni replaced striker Alejandro ‘Pabu Gomez’ with defender Lisandro Martínez. Argentina started with three defenses at full back and definitely played better football in the second half and created more chances.
It was Julian Alvarez who scored the second goal in the match after the fatal mistake of the Australian goalkeeper Matthew Ryan, who lost the ball thanks to the pressure of Rodrigo de Paul and Julian Alvarez. The Manchester City striker scored his second goal of the competition. Australia managed to come back in the dying minutes of the match with a goal by Craig Goodwin (his shot was saved by Enzo Fernandez and later ruled an own goal official) but it wasn’t enough as Argentina managed to maintain the advantage and win. to advance from the round of sixteen Albiceleste He will return on Friday and play against the Netherlands for a place in the top four of the 2022 World Cup. Messi’s dream is more than ever.
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