Who is the best goalscorer ever?? It's Lionel Messi!

The match between Argentina and Austria was always gonna be about Lionel Messi, no matter the final result and everybody knew it. The player himself is responsible for that, as he scored a hat-trick against Algeria and came one goal shy of becoming the World Cup’s best ever goal scorer. So, the pressure was on, the hype was huge and Messi got the chance to re-write the history after only four minutes of the game, when Argentina earned a penalty. But too much pressure affected even the greatest one, and Messi missed the whole goal. But it was to be Lionel’s night after all. In the 38th minute, he got into a scoring position and without overthinking just instinctively took a shot and went into a legend – 17 goals at the World Cups. He surpassed Miroslav Klose (16), but Kylian Mbappe is already closing in with 14 goals. Just to keep the Frenchman at bay (for now), the Argentinian scored another one in the 95th minute and so far has five goals in two games.

If somebody is also interested in the score, it finished 2-0 and Argentina all but secured the first place in the group. Apart from Messi’s winner and the hype surrounding the player, this game was not the one to be remember for more than five minutes. Both teams didn’t thrill at all, but Argentina played slightly better and deserved the win. Austria managed first shot on target in the 55th minute, and that says much about their effort. The game didn’t have any controversial moments but it was visible that Egyptian referee Amin Mohamed Omar was also under the influence of Messi and missed to give Austrian players a couple of fouls (and give the Argentinians a couple of yellow cards).

The defending champions come into this game with eight wins in a row (their longest such streak since 2016) and continued it with Messi’s historical goal. The former Barcelona forward scored in the 38th minute but had even a better opportunity after only four minutes. Lautaro Martinez managed to get the ball into the penalty area and two Austria players came in for the tackle: Stefan Posch and Xaver Schalger, They managed to hook the ball to safety, but after the first reply it was obvious that Posch hit Lautaro’s foot and not the ball and VAR called the referee to take a luck. It was an easy decision, but Messi was obviously under pressure due to this historical moment and missed. With this penalty, he became both the player with most penalties at the World Cups (7), and also the footballer with most misses (3).

Messi had a good opportunity in the 20th minute but David Alaba came from behind and managed to move the ball just enough to ruin the chance. However, the historical goal eventually happened and Argentina went into the second half looking to secure the win with a second goal. Austria got better but had their first real chance in the 55th minute, when Dibu Martinez saved Sabitzer’s free kick. Dortmund’s midfielder provided an assist for Gregoritsch 10 minutes later, but his header was poor. And that was all we saw from Austria. Messi nearly assisted for the second goal in the 73rd minute, but Gonzalez’s header went inches from the far corner. After that, the game became even more boring as Austria couldn’t do anything and Argentina felt that they could win even with only one goal. But after some bad clearances (or lack of it) by the Austrians in injury time, relentless Messi scored a brace for the final 2-0.

WORLD CUP - GROUP STAGE (ROUND 2)

Monday 22.06.

01.00: (1.55) Uruguay (3.80) Cabo Verde (7.25)

Group I

Tuesday 23.06.

00.00: (1.10) France (9.50) Iraq (28.0)

03.00: (2.50) Norway (3.35) Senegal (2.85)

Group J

Monday 22.06.

Argentina - Austria 2-0 (1-0)

/Messi 38, 90+5/

Tuesday 23.06.

06.00: (5.50) Jordan (3.70) Algeria (1.67)