Former England defender Rio Ferdinand hailed Lionel Messi’s efficiency in Argentina’s 2-1 win over Australia of their Round of 16 recreation at Stadium 974 in Qatar.
Speaking on the BBC, Ferdinand stated: ‘Messi has put in a private finest on this World Cup by a mile.’
Messi, on his one thousandth look, gave Argentina the lead within the first half. He scored his ninth World Cup aim within the thirty fifth minute, surpassing the late Argentine teammate Diego Maradona.
Rio Ferdinand on Lionel Messi: “Messi has had the best individual performance in this World Cup so far … by a mile.” pic.twitter.com/p0zEk4zXDO
— Sportbible (@sportbible) December 3, 2022
Former England striker Alan Shearer additionally joined Ferdinand in praising Messi.[We are] Very fortunate to be within the stadium to see him. What is the second half efficiency from him. Shearer stated
Shearer additional stated ‘his starvation and need and skill to open it up for his teammates. That’s the story, however what a efficiency from Australia.
Lionel Messi, 35, registered his knockout aim in Saturday’s recreation.
Australia at the moment are out after dramatically qualifying within the Round of 16. Messi opened the scoring and Julián Álvarez doubled the lead within the 57th minute of the second half. Enzo Fernandez scored a late on aim within the 77th minute for the Australian staff. However, Argentina managed to qualify.
In the opposite knockout, Louis van Gaal’s Netherlands beat the USA 3–1 to qualify for the quarter-finals of the World Cup.
Argentina will face the Netherlands within the quarter-finals on Saturday.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS