Argentina captain Lionel Messi Diego Maradona’s World Cup goals in his team broke down 2-1 Round of 16 win against Australia on Saturday.
Messi equals Maradona’s tally of eight World Cup goals in last match against Argentina Mexicoto set scoring remotely Albiceleste On their way to a 2-0 victory.
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He scored his ninth goal in the tournament on Saturday, surpassing the 1986 World Cup winner – and Guillermo Stabile, who scored eight times in the 1930 World Cup.
The historic effort came in the 35th minute, giving Argentina a 1–0 lead, when he collected the layoff and fired the ball low into the net with his famous left foot.
The goal was Messi’s first in the World Cup knockout stages and came on the occasion of his 1,000th game for club and country.
Messi had a chance to overtake Maradona in the final group stage game against Argentina poland But missed a first half penalty. Argentina went on top of the group after a 2–0 win.
The 35-year-old is now one goal away from Gabriel Batistuta’s record of 10 goals for Argentina, which were scored at the 1994, 1998 and 2002 World Cups.
Messi made his World Cup debut in 2006, coming off the bench in the group stage against Serbia and Montenegro, leading his team to a 6–0 victory.
He failed to score a whole lot in the 2010 World Cup, however, as the Argentina team managed by Maradona reached the quarter-finals, but lost 4–0. Germany,
The forward enjoyed much of the 2014 tournament, scoring four times in Argentina’s first three games and helping them reach the final – where they lost to Germany.
He scored just once in the 2018 final in Russia – Nigeria In the group stage — and has now netted in all of Argentina’s group games in Qatar.
Maradona’s World Cup goals came in the 1982 (2), 1986 (5) and 1994 (1) tournaments. His finest moment came in the 1986 final in Mexico, where he led Argentina to their final World Cup victory.
Messi is Argentina’s all-time top scorer with 94 goals in 169 appearances for the national team since making his debut in 2005. Maradona scored 34 goals in 91 matches for Argentina from 1977–1994.
