Messi has also become both the youngest and the oldest player to both score and assist in a single World Cup match.
Argentina legend Lionel Messi has set a new World Cup assist record after scoring Argentina’s second goal in their 2-0 victory over Mexico at Lusail Stadium on Saturday.
The two-time world champions were playing a do-die game on Saturday after a disappointing loss to Saudi Arabia. They secured three points in this important encounter of Group C.
Messi was on the scoresheet against Saudi Arabia and he found the net again against Mexico. He now has eight goals in World Cup events.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has now become the first player in World Cup history to provide an assist at five separate World Cup tournaments (2006, 2010 2014, 2018, 2022). He broke his own record.
The PSG star has also become both the youngest and the oldest player to both score and assist in a single World Cup match since the beginning of the 1966 World Cup.
Messi both scored and registered an assist at the age of 18 years and 357 days against Serbia and Montenegro in the 2006 group stage, and he has now repeated the feat against Mexico in this year’s tournament at the age of 35 years and 155 days.
Messi has now recorded 19 goals and 15 assists in 24 games for club and country across all competitions this season.
Speaking to reporters after the match, Messi said: “It was a difficult match to get up, because Mexico plays well. We played intensely in the first half and in the second we calmed down and went back to being ourselves.
“The first game cost us, there are many conditioning factors. Even so, they were two isolated plays. We knew that today we had to win, that another World Cup was starting for us, and we knew how to do it.
“We can’t give up now. We have all the finals to play, we can’t make mistakes. We knew that the people’s response would be like this, I think we complied, we’ve been together for a long time hand.
“We all played the game as we had to. We were forced to carry it out and it’s difficult to play in those conditions, but both those who started and those who entered responded. There is another game to go, we accommodate but lack”.
Argentina have moved to second in Group C after their victory over Mexico and they are sitting one point behind leaders Poland, who will lock horns with La Albiceleste in their final group game next Wednesday.
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