He has kept his storied playing career alive by leading Argentina to another World Cup final.
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Lionel Messi has already won one World Cup. But the Argentine captain added another chapter to his playing career on Thursday. He kept his legendary playing career alive by leading Argentina to another World Cup final. Argentina made a comeback victory over England in the second semi-final of the competition with a 2-1 victory.
Defending champions Atalanta were trailing by one goal until the 85th minute, thanks to Anthony Gordon's goal. Then Messi performed a magic trick in the game, turning the situation in Argentina's favor. The player who scored the most goals in the tournament in this game did not score himself. But he scored the equalizer with his pass to Enzo Fernandez.
Then Lautaro Martinez scored the decisive goal. Messi, now 39, said after the game, "Today I am feeling special happiness." This was a game that the Argentine fans had been hoping for. We did it. This was also the first time Messi had faced England in his career.
Messi did not score two goals against England like he did in the 1986 World Cup. At that time, both goals were scored by Diego Maradona. But now Messi has played an assist role in both of Argentina's goals. Messi, who became a 'legend' after winning the World Cup in Qatar four years ago, has become an even higher level player with this victory.
Argentina has never lost in the World Cup semi-finals and this has continued. Now the South American team has the opportunity to win the World Cup for the second time in a row, the first time since 1962. At that time, Brazil had a similar performance. Now Messi will also be the first player to play in three World Cup finals after Brazil's Cafu.
Messi said, 'Playing in two consecutive finals is unique in itself. We have won all those games in which our situation was not favorable. We are a team that has always believed in itself.' This is Messi's sixth World Cup. In this process, he has also set a record by playing 33 World Cup games.
Argentina will now face Spain in the final on Sunday. This will also be Messi's first match at a high level against Spain. Not only that, this will also be a special match for him, because he went to Spain to play for Barcelona at the age of 13. This happened two decades ago, even though nothing happened. He won everything while playing for Barcelona.
And in the process, he proved himself to be a great player. He left Barcelona in 2021, joining Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Messi also holds a Spanish passport and is believed to one day make Barcelona his home. But before that, Messi wants to disrupt Spain's World Cup campaign.
