In the early morning of December 1, Beijing time, the final round of the World Cup group stage, Argentina played against Poland. Messi missed a penalty, but goals from McAllister and Alvarez helped Argentina win 2-0 and secure a group top 16 victory.
The match was Messi's 22nd match at the World Cup, surpassing Maradona's record (21) to become the Argentine player with the most World Cup appearances. The current World Cup appearance record holder is German Mateus, who has played a total of 25 World Cup matches. If Messi can reach the last four at this World Cup, he will be able to equalize and surpass Mateus' record (reaching the final four will take at least two matches).
Messi was able to surpass Maradona in the number of World Cup appearances because Argentina qualified from the group in the World Cup. Messi has been participating in the World Cup since 2006, his fifth appearance. In the five World Cups in which Messi participated, Argentina all advanced to the knockout rounds. In these 22 World Cup matches, Messi has scored a total of 8 goals and 6 assists.
Argentina advanced to the round of 16 as the first in Group C, and their opponent has been confirmed, the second place in Group D, namely Australia from the AFC. The match against Australia was not only Messi's 23rd game at the World Cup, but also the 1,000th milestone of his career.
However, there is still a little regret in Messi's record. In this game, Messi missed a penalty. In Argentina's match against Iceland in the last World Cup group stage, Messi also missed a penalty. Two consecutive World Cups have missed penalties, and such stars are rare.