Argentina 5-0 Estonia: Lionel Messi scores five times in friendly

Lionel Messi scored all five goals for Argentina as they continued their fine form by beating Estonia in a friendly match in Pamplona, ​​Spain.

Messi provided two assists in this game and he was in vintage form again.

He opened the scoring with a penalty, then scored two more goals in each half to complete the rout.

It’s the first time the 34-year-old has scored five goals in a game for his country. In fact, he only achieved the feat once in his career, in a Barcelona win 7-1 against Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League in 2012.

His third against Estonia, two minutes after half-time, took him level with 84 goals, with Ferenc Puskas the fourth-highest goalscorer in the history of men’s international football.

Fourteen minutes later his fourth of the match meant he had passed the legendary Hungarian and now sits in that position, behind only Malaysian Mokhtar Dahari (89), Iranian Ali Daei (109) and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (117) .

He would have been even closer to Ronaldo, but the Portuguese scored twice in his country’s Nations League victory over Switzerland on Sunday.

Messi’s goals in Pamplona demonstrated his wide range of skills.

He put Lionel Scaloni’s side ahead with a calm penalty after eight minutes and then doubled the advantage with a powerful side-footed effort into the roof of the net from a tight angle.

His third was a predatory finish, showing his trademark accuracy to head Nahuel Molina’s right wing cross into the bottom corner from 12 yards out.

His fourth owes much to his quick-wittedness. As other players stopped and anticipated a free kick that never came, Messi picked up a loose ball, entered the box, produced a dummy that left the Estonian keeper and a defender lying in the floor and rolled the ball into the empty net. .

He capped off his standout performance when he was again quickest to react to a loose ball and slotted into a low finish from outside the penalty spot with 14 minutes remaining.

Although Estonia did not provide the toughest tests, this result – coupled with victory over Italy, their unbeaten World Cup qualifying campaign and the Copa America triumph last year – suggests Messi could still have a big chance of winning the World Cup, the only trophy. which eluded him in his brilliant career.