‘Leo is 99.9% of Argentina’

Lionel Messi was on target on his 1,000th career appearance to help fire Argentina into the quarter-finals of World Cup 2022.

Argentina captain Messi put in another inspirational performance to help send his team past Australia in Qatar. The Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) star opened the scoring with his first World Cup knockout goal, reports GOAL. 

Messi was also named the Man of the Match as Lionel Scaloni's side ran out 2-1 winners, earning praise from his goalkeeper.

"Leo is 99.9% of the team. We are the remaining percentage that we try to help him when things don't work out for him," he told Cope. "We are going step by step. We have the best in the world, but we are going to fight until the end."

There's no doubt that Messi was key to Argentina's win but Martinez also played a crucial role. The Aston Villa goalkeeper produced a brilliant save deep into stoppage time to prevent Australia from making it 2-2 and sending the match into extra time.

Messi scored in the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time for Argentina, with his previous eight goals in the competition all coming during the group stage. Only Gabriel Batistuta (10) has scored more World Cup goals for Argentina than Messi (9).

La Albiceleste will now play the Netherlands for a place in the World Cup semi-finals.