Doha: Lionel Messi said former captain Diego Maradona would have been happy when Argentina overcame Poland and progressed to the pre-quarters. Playing his 22nd World Cup match, Messi surpassed Maradona’s record in this game.
“I didn’t know about the record before. I found this out recently. Achieving such records is a pleasure. Diego must have been overjoyed at this. “He had a special affection for me,” Messi said.
“I was very upset about missing the penalty. Because I knew that one goal could influence the outcome of the match. But the team came back strong from that loss. “This win gives us a lot of confidence,” added Messi.
Each game forward
Every next match in the Qatar World Cup will be milestones in the career of football legend Lionel Messi. The Argentine player, who actually surpassed Maradona in the number of matches, will have a total of 23 games with the pre-quarters played. With this, he will join Italy’s Paolo Maldini as the third most-capped player in World Cup history.
If he makes it to the quarterfinals, he will become the second player to have played more matches alongside Germany’s Miroslav Klose. Now, if he gets a chance to play in the semi-finals, he can share the achievement of being the player who has played the most matches with Germany’s Lothar Mathews. If he manages to play in the finals, he will go down in history with 26 matches.