How one Socceroos foul brought out ‘the fire’ in Lionel Messi

04-Dec-2022 15:09:59 | Guardian

A brush with Australia defender Aziz Behich sparked ‘La Pulga’ into life as the Albiceleste booked a place in the last eight

Oh, Aziz. You’ve done it now. The second it happened, Argentina’s players knew there was only one way this was going to end. Anyone who has watched Lionel Messi a lot did, and there has been a lot of him to watch. By the time they left the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, scene of his 1,000th game, his teammate Alexis Mac Allister was laughing about it, the apparent inevitability of it all. Australia had picked the wrong guy: that’s not a knife, this is a knife.

There were 10 minutes to go until half-time, there had been little sign of a breakthrough, and Messi had given the ball away the last two times he had it, when he and Aziz Behich clashed out on the right touchline. The Dundee United player barged him, grabbed his shirt and had a word or five. Shortly after he also gave away a free-kick, for a foul on Alejandro Gómez. Messi took the free-kick, fast. Within seconds, Argentina had the lead and their captain had scored his 789th career goal - seven hundred and eighty nine – and his first in a World Cup knockout.