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World Cup 2022: Lionel Messi and his 1000th game, check out the numbers

Lionel Messi made his 1000th career appearance in the World Cup in their 2-1 win over Australia on Saturday.

Lionel Messi

Lionel Messi made his 1000th career appearance in the World Cup in their 2-1 win over Australia on Saturday.

This was Messi's 169th appearance in the Argentina colours and he went on to score a goal in the match as well, his 94th for the Latin American nation.

But along with the goal, Lionel Messi had an outstanding match. He was instrumental and had an excellent outing in every department.

The 35-year-old completed 52 passes in the match with 90% accuracy, and 10 of those passes were in the final third.

He also had 9 touches in the opposition box, most by a player in the match. He also took 6 shots in the match, the most in the match by a player.

He also was topping the list of most chances created as the veteran engineered 4 chances in the match, two of them listed as big chances.

Messi's goal against Australia was his 9th in the World Cup, and with that, he surpassed Late Diego Maradona. Only Gabriel Batistuta is ahead of him with 10 goals for Argentina in the World Cup.

"Messi has put on the best individual performance we have seen at this World Cup by a mile," England legend Rio Ferdinand said after the match.

This was quite surely the best match by Lionel Messi in this World Cup. In the past three matches, he had scored two goals, but was not that involved throughout the ninety minutes. But in the tie against Australia, he was everywhere. Messi orchestrated the whole play, his vision was fantastic, and tormented the opposition.

He also won 2 fouls in the game and also helped his team in the defence, yielding one successful tackle.

He will be gearing up for his 1001st against the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. Messi will be hoping to replicate his performance in the next match as well. The match against Australia on Saturday perhaps kickstarted his World Cup in the most vibrant way finally, after the early blues against Saudi Arabia. And Messi would only want to rise even higher heights from here.

Story first published: Sunday, December 4, 2022, 12:16 [IST]
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