QATAR 2022 WORLD CUP: Goals from Lionel Messi, Juliàn Alvarez books Argentina’s quarter finals ticket
By Samson Adeyemo
Lionel Messi celebrated his 1000th match of the World Cup as Argentina took down Australia 2-1 to book their place in the quarterfinal against the Netherlands as goals from Messi And Juliàn Alvarez sends Australia packing.
After a dreary first 30 minutes of the match, Messi opened the scoring with a trademark curling left-footed shot into the far corner of the goal, after receiving a layoff from a teammate at the penalty box.
The Australian keeper Maty Ryan, gifted Argentina the Second goal at 56 minutes, when he opted to play his way through two Argentinians instead of booting the ball clear, when Julian Alvarez took advantage of the situation.
However, the match seemed over for the Australians. Despite needing two goals in a half-hour, Australia still did not look capable of scoring.
But in the 77th minute Craig Goodwin’s speculative strike from outside the box was deflected by Enzo Fernández past his own keeper for an own goal, to make it 2-1.
Despite having an advantage lead, the final moments of the game were far too crucial than Argentina would have anticipated.
Lionel Scaloni’s men now set to lurk horns with the Netherlands in the quarter finals of the tournament.
