Record Alert! Lionel Messi overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo, Diego Maradona on World Cup goal tally
Record Alert! Messi overtakes Cristiano Ronaldo, Maradona with 9 WC goals
The Argentinean greatLionel Messi has gone past Diego Maradona and Cristiano Ronaldo in scoring the most goals in FIFA World Cups. Following his superb performance against Australia in the pre-quarterfinal clash on Saturday night, where Messi scored one goal, his ninth overall in World Cups, he surpassed Ronaldo and Maradona’s tally of eight goals each in the tournament. What’s the cherry on the cake? Messi achieved this feat in his 1000th career game. Besides, this was also the first time Messi scored a goal in the knockout stage of the World Cups.
Argentina vs Australia clash wasn’t just a match, it was supposed to be a'war’, as stated by Australia’s coach Graham Arnold ahead of the game. It, however, didn’t go that way. Argentina in the opening half had most of the possession, they even created a few chances early on. In the 35th minute of the match came a moment that sent the world into a crazy party mode with Lionel Messi scoring the first goal through a fantastic shot from just outside the box.
With the 1-0 lead, Argentina wereall over their opponents. In the second half, striker Julian Alvarez made it 2-0 for the tournament favourites, almost cementing his side’s place in the next round. Australia though managed to hit one goal later, the match ended with Argentina winning the contest 2-1.
Post-game, Messi in a media interaction talked about this particular achievement and seemed grateful for it. He even said the match wasn’t easy as they had to really work hard to get that win.
“I am very happy for taking another step forward, achieving another objective," Messi said during a post-match interaction with the media.
“It was a very strong and difficult match — we knew it was going to be this way. We didn’t have much time to rest up and we were concerned as we knew it was going to be a physical match and they were very strong," he added.
Argentina will now face the Netherlands in their quarterfinal clash on Saturday, December 10th.
