Argentinian maestro Lionel Messi achieved another feat against Curacao at the Estadio Unico Madre de on Wednesday.
Messi’s 37th-minute hat trick took him past the 100-goal mark at the international level. The 35-year-old attacker became the third player to reach the 100-goal mark after his archrival Cristiano Ronaldo (122) and Iran’s Ali Daei (109). Along with this, he is the first South American player to achieve this feat, ahead of the likes of Maradona, Pele, and Neymar.
He broke the stalemate in the 20th minute of the game with his trademark style to get his 100th goal at the international level. Giovani Lo Celso slipped the ball past him and found Messi inside the box, who made no mistake in finding the bottom corner. Even at the age of 35, Messi’s precision in finding the goal has not dipped.
Nicoloas Gonzalez got the second goal of the game three minutes later. Messi found the back of the net again ten minutes later to claim his second goal of the game. Argentina didn’t take their foot off the accelerator.
In the next four minutes, Argentina scored twice to make it 4-0 before the halftime mark. Messi scored the fourth goal of the match to claim his ninth hat trick in Argentinian colours. Argentina ended the game with a score of 7-0, ending the endless Curacao nightmare. Messi is currently third with 102 goals, seven behind Iran’s Ali Daei and 20 behind Portugal’s goal scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi expressed his happiness with an Instagram post and wrote in the caption, “What a nice way to close these dates, impressive everyone in Santiago del Estero today,” Messi wrote on Instagram. “I wish we can continue to share many such moments together and that this craziness never ends!”
