The legend scored a brilliant goal in 80 seconds to allow his team to dominate the game
Author: Soorya G
World champions Argentina were absolutely brilliant in their friendly against Australia, maintaining their unbeaten run after winning the World Cup in Qatar. The good result keeps Lionel Scaloni’s record with the Argentinian national team at an impressive 45-1, with just one surprise defeat to tiny Saudi Arabia in their opening game of the 2022 World Cup, where the Arabs scored two quick goals in the first few minutes of stoppage time to cancel out Lionel Messi’s goal. However, the legendary maestro was not to be denied victory after scoring the fastest goal of his professional career on Thursday.
The star, who is a week away from his 36th birthday, showed sublime skill as he effortlessly evaded several Australian defenders and curled a shot comfortably past the number one to open the scoring in the second minute. Messi has been in great form over the last year, especially for the national team, scoring 12 goals for Argentina after the start of the World Cup. It’s nothing out of the ordinary for the little master, but to continue at the highest level for as long as he has is truly remarkable.
Messi took justice into his own hands in the first few minutes of the friendly and opened the scoring for the world champions. Scaloni adopted a slightly modified line-up, opting not to play with a conventional number nine, although Julian Alvarez and Giovanni Simeone were part of the team. Instead, he deployed Messi and Alexis Mac Allister, recently signed from Liverpool, at the top of a 4-4-2 formation. Ángel Di María and González occupied the wider positions in midfield, while the pivot was filled by Enzo Fernandes and Rodrigo de Paul. Emiliano Martinez, as usual, was among the goalkeepers.
Messi, Mac Allister and Di Maria combined on several occasions, sometimes transitioning to a 4-3-3, to create dangerous attacking sequences, but some decent defending on a couple of occasions and a lack of finishing kept the score at 1-0 at the end of the first half. Scaloni made a few changes at half time, but kept to the original shape. A substitute just after the break, German Pezzella doubled the Albiceleste’s lead in the 68th minute.
In another friendly, Venezuela managed to beat Honduras 1-0. Yeferson Seteldo’s goal in the 37th minute tipped the balance in the Venezuelans’ favor. Meanwhile, Guatemala stunned Costa Rica 1-0 thanks to an early goal from Carlos Meija. Wu Lei’s two excellent goals saw China beat Myanmar 4-0. Elkeson and Liangming Lin scored the other two goals in an uneven encounter in which China is looking to develop under a new system. Thailand and Chinese Taipei played out a four-goal draw, while Peru beat South Korea 1-0.