Doha, Dec 1: Rest easy, football fans. Lionel Messi will grace the World Cup stage at least one more time.
The Argentina great had a penalty saved but his team still beat Poland 2-0 on Wednesday after second-half goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julian Alvarez and advanced to the last 16.
After opening the World Cup with a shocking 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in one of biggest upsets in the tournament’s history, Argentina wound up finishing in first place in Group C and will next play Australia – a surprise qualifier for the knockout stage.
Messi rolls into Saturday’s game suddenly in a strong position in likely his final World Cup.
“Now another World Cup begins.” Messi said, “and hopefully we can continue to do what we did today.” As for Poland, it was ultimately a happy night, too, because the team went through as the group’s second-place team – on goal difference ahead of Mexico – and will next play defending champion France.
Messi ended up relieved after failing to score a penalty for the second straight World Cup. It was awarded after he was hit in the face by the flailing hand of Poland goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, who made amends by diving to his left to block Messi’s kick in the 39th minute.
A largely pro-Argentina crowd, waving flags and scarfs and beating drums behind both goals, had been sweeping Messi and his team along at the 44,000-seat Stadium 974 and they didn’t stop after the penalty. Within seconds, a chant of “MESSI! MESSI!” immediately reverberated around the venue in a bid to keep their idol’s head high. And the roars were even louder at the start of the second half, first after Mac Allister’s goal – a scruffy finish from Nahuel Molina’s cut-back from the right – in the first minute and soon after as news filtered through that Mexico had taken the lead against Saudi Arabia, which started the day in third place. (AP)
