Unlike in the 2022 World Cup, it was clear in the Knockout Round that the rest of the Argentina squad was not in top form this time. But Messi, who took the hopes of the entire country on his shoulders every time his teammates falter, saved Argentina from collapsing once again.
Messi, who provided one goal and one assist to lead the team to victory when they were helpless at 2-0 in the last match against Egypt, performed a similar miracle against England. England were still leading 1-0 until the 85th minute of the match and their only goal was to limit Messi. But this 39-year-old hero, who ran around the field with the vitality of a 20-year-old player, gave a valuable assist to Enzo to level the match at 1-1. He did not stop there, and his beautiful assist to Martinez in extra time (90+2) became Argentina’s winning goal. Although Messi did not score a goal, he is the real owner of both goals that took Argentina to the final against England.
Messi’s superb style of play throughout this tournament shows how consistent he is. He started the tournament with a hat-trick (3 goals) against Algeria, scored 2 goals against Austria, and scored 1 goal each against Jordan and Cape Verde. In addition, he has scored a goal and an assist against Egypt, an assist against Switzerland and 2 crucial assists against England, taking his total to 8 goals and 4 assists in this tournament alone.
With this feat, Messi becomes the all-time leading scorer and assist maker in World Cup history, with a total of 21 World Cup goals and 14 assists, a record that no one has ever achieved.
Messi has led Argentina to the finals in three of the last four World Cups he has participated in (2014, 2022, 2026). After winning the 2021 Copa America, the 2022 World Cup and the 2024 Copa America, Argentina are now just one step away from winning their fourth consecutive major international trophy.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Unlike in the 2022 World Cup, it was clear in the Knockout Round that the rest of the Argentina squad was not in top form this time. But Messi, who took the hopes of the entire country on his shoulders every time his teammates falter, saved Argentina from collapsing once again.Messi, who provided one goal…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":12382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,68],"tags":[250,73,134],"class_list":["post-12381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-international-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-slsports","tag-sports-news"],"yoast_head":"\n