After missing a penalty, Lionel Messi scored two goals to lead Argentina to a 2–0 win over Austria. With these goals he became the all-time top scorer of the World Cup and the team reached the knockouts.
Texas: After making the record of scoring most goals in the World Cup, Argentina captain Lionel Messi has made a big revelation. He told that he was very angry with himself for missing the penalty during the match. However, after this mistake, Messi scored two goals and gave his team Argentina a spectacular victory and secured a place in the knockout. In this match held in Texas, Argentina defeated Austria 2-0. With these two goals, Messi became the highest goalscorer in the history of the World Cup.
Messi scored his first goal in the 38th minute of the match. This was his 17th goal in the World Cup and with this he became the all-time top scorer of the tournament. After this, in the injury time of the second half, he scored his 18th World Cup goal to ensure Argentina’s victory. But at the beginning of the match, when the score was 0-0, Messi got a penalty kick, which he could not convert into a goal. Messi’s weak shot went wide of the post.
Messi spoke openly after the match on missing the penalty. He said, “At that moment I was very angry at myself because I had taken a very bad kick. But luckily we came back into the game quickly and managed to maintain our lead. Today we got three very important points.” This is not the first time that a big player like Messi has missed the penalty spot. Earlier, he could not score a goal on penalty even in the group match against Poland in the 2018 World Cup and 2022 World Cup.
Messi, who was set to celebrate his 39th birthday on Wednesday, arrived at his sixth World Cup with a slight concern about a hamstring injury. But he had proved his form by scoring a hat-trick against Algeria in the very first match. With this win over Austria, Argentina qualifies for the next round from Group J. Argentina’s next match is against Jordan on Saturday. Messi made it clear that the team’s aim is to win the last match and go to the next round as group topper. At the same time, some reports are saying that coach Lionel Scaloni may rest Messi against Jordan.