Messi opened the scoring in the meeting with a creeping ground shot with his left hand in the 35th minute, which bounced until it hit the net of Matthew Ryan, the Australian goalkeeper.
Ryan made a fatal mistake about 12 minutes after the start of the second half and tried to dodge two Argentine players, so Julian Alvarez snatched the ball from him and deposited it in the goal.
In the 76th minute, Australia scored its only goal through a sloppy shot by its striker Craig Goodwin, which collided with Argentine player Enzo Fernandez and changed its direction into Emiliano Martinez’s net.
Argentina set a date with the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, where the two teams will meet in an upcoming summit match, on Friday.
Messi celebrated as best he could with the 1,000th match of his career, as he sought to win the one title that eluded him, the World Cup.
The 35-year-old Messi is Argentina’s top scorer throughout the ages, scoring 94 goals in 170 international matches.
Leo joined Barcelona’s Spanish academy at the age of 13, becoming the club’s all-time top scorer with 672 goals scored in 778 matches, before moving to Paris Saint-Germain last year.
In all, Messi scored 789 goals in his career.
Messi is participating in the World Cup for the fifth time and has said it will be his last tournament, making it important for him to win the trophy if he wants to emulate the legacy of his late predecessor Diego Maradona.
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