Argentina lived dangerously on Saturday night to beat Mexico (2-0), with Lionel Messi again making the difference for Scaloni’s side.

Argentina – Mexico, FIFA World Cup 2022, Group C,Photo: Colorsport / Shutterstock Editorial / Profimedia

With the score at 0:0, Lionel Messi came out of the deadlock and opened the scoring with a great conversion. Dekar punched hard and beat Ochoa, and a few minutes later he passed to Enzo Fernandez, who in turn executed the veteran in the goal of the Mexicans.

Lionel Messi tied with Diego Maradona for the number of matches and goals at the World Cup

The match against Mexico was Messi’s 21st at the World Cups and the Argentine drew level with Diego Maradona who won the world title with the Pumas.

Messi made his debut in the final tournament of this kind in 2006, when he collected 3 matches. To date, Lionel Messi has played 5 matches at the 2010 World Cup (South Africa), 7 matches at the 2014 World Cup (Brazil when he played in the final) and 4 matches at the 2014 World Cup (Russia). In the current tournament, Messi played two matches.

The absolute record holder for the number of matches played at the World Cup is the German Lothar Matthaus, who played 25 matches.

At the same time, Lionel Messi restored another important milestone in the history of the Argentina national football team, managing to reach 8 goals scored in the World Cup, the same number of goals as Diego Maradona.

  • Lionel Messi became the first Argentinian player to score in 4 World Cup finals (2006, 2014, 2018, 2022). Thus, the PSG star surpasses Gabriel Batistuta (1994, 1998, 2002) and Diego Maradona (1982, 1986, 1994).
  • The last time Argentina lost their opening game at a FIFA World Cup was in the 1990 World Cup, when the Cougars lost to Cameroon (0-1 at the San Siro).
  • The last time Argentina lost was in the semifinals of the Copa America 2019 (July 3), when they were beaten by Brazil (0:2). Then there were 36 matches without defeat.
  • Argentina won the World Cup title twice, in 1978 and 1986.
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