In the thousandth match in his professional career, Argentina captain Lionel Messi scored his first goal in an elimination match in the history of his participation in the World Cup, when he opened the scoring on Saturday against Australia in the final price of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Messi took advantage of a ball that defender Nicholas Otamendi prepared for him inside the area, and he kicked it crawling with his left hand to the right of Australian goalkeeper Matthew Ryan in the 35th minute.
Messi did not succeed in his four previous participations in the World Cup in Germany 2006, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014 and Russia 2018 in scoring any goal in the knockout rounds, starting from the final price.
Messi scored his third goal in the Qatar World Cup, joining the quintet Ener Valencia (Ecuador), Kylian Mbappe (France), Cody Khakpo (Netherlands), Marcus Rashford (England) and Alvaro Morata (Spain) to the top of the scorers list.
He opened the scoring in the first round against Saudi Arabia from a penalty kick (1-2), then against Mexico (2-0) in the second round with a shot from outside the area, and fasted from scoring in the third round against Poland (2-0).
Messi raised his goal tally in 1,000 games (778 with Barcelona, 53 with Paris Saint-Germain and 169 with Argentina) in his professional career so far, to 789 goals, including the goal scored Saturday against Australia.
Messi also contributed 345 assists and won 41 titles in his career.