With five goals from Lionel Messi, Argentina thrashed Estonia 5-0 This Sunday in a friendly played at the El Sadar stadium, in Pamplona (Spain).
Messi opened the account after eight minutes of penalty kick and then increased to 45, 47, 71 and 76. “I don’t know what else to say about him, it’s like it happens with Rafa Nadal. You’ll say? You have no words left to describe it, for everything it generates”exclaimed the coach of Argentina, Lionel Scaloni.
La Pulga joined Juan Andrés Marvezy (5 goals for Ecuador in 1941) and José Manuel Moreno (5 goals also for Ecuador in 1942) as the only ones to score five goals in a game with the Albiceleste.
The team led by Scaloni extended its undefeated streak to 33 games, since losing 2-0 on July 2, 2019 against Brazil in the semifinals of the Copa América. Argentina presented a very renewed starting line-up compared to the one that had thrashed Italy 3-0 four days ago at Wembley in the Finalissima between the champions of America and Europe.
huge messi
Just three players repeated this Sunday, and one of them was Messi, always willing to add minutes with the Albiceleste and fatten up his historical statistics.
Despite the fact that Estonia was in charge of populating the edge of their area with an iron line of five defenders, to which were added three midfielders and at times one of their two forwards, Argentina needed just 8 minutes to open that lock.
Goalkeeper Matvei Igonen vehemently came out of his goal in search of the ball and took on defender Germán Pezzella, which led to a penalty that Messi converted with a corner shot.
Already more relaxed for having opened the scoring quickly, Argentina uncovered some shortcomings in its offensive operation, typical of a formation with players who are not used to playing together. Thus, it was difficult for him to find holes in the rocky Estonian defensive block and he even exhibited some shortcomings in his last line, that first forced a save by goalkeeper Franco Armani against veteran striker Sergei Zenjov, and in a later play a saving cross by winger Nahuel Molina.
Without the collective functioning of other days, Argentina depended on the inspiration of
Messi and Rodrigo De Paul, and for that reason it was not strange that the second goal was born from them. The Atlético de Madrid midfielder found a path to break the line of Estonian midfielders, accelerated hard and reached the edge of the area and, with the imbalance already generated, Papu Gómez enabled Messi to define with quality against the bailout of the archer
Argentina went into the complement with a renewed spirit and determined to make the big differences with their rival weigh, and they succeeded from the outset, when after a good collective play, Messi scored the third goal for the team and his personal account inside the small area.
Scaloni’s men established themselves in the second half as clear dominators against a rival who, beyond the goals they were receiving, at no time abandoned a position that barely aimed at suffering a defeat as small as possible. There was still time for more shouts from Messi.
He first surprised a defense that was left waiting for Swiss referee Urs Schnyder to call a foul and let him define almost unopposed. And then came his fifth goal, which rounded his record, after a play full of rebounds that he defined with the usual clarity, in order to transform a game that was not aimed for that into history.
AFP
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