After a painful victory Thursday against Panama (61st in the world), for Argentina’s first meeting since their world title in December in Qatar, the program for this second friendly match was lightened against Curaçao (86th), island of Netherlands Antilles with 152,000 inhabitants off the coast of Venezuela.
The very modest opposition offered allowed the 42,000 spectators gathered at the Santiago del Estero stadium (east) to continue the idyll between the Albiceleste and the Argentine people. And to the idol of the country, captain Leo Messi, to enter a little more into the history of national football.
From the 19th minute, he opened the scoring with a cross shot from the right to the penalty spot but above all scored his 100th goal in the sky blue and white striped jersey. He is by far Argentina’s top scorer in history, his tally even surpassing that of his two pursuers, Gabriel Batistuta (56 goals) and Sergio Aguero (41).
Ball “at the museum”
The symbolic milestone was expected. The ball was taken out of the playing area by the referee and should “end up in the museum”, according to the ecstatic Argentinian commentators of the meeting.
Then Messi scored again, again from the penalty spot but from the left (32nd), then launched deep (36th), to bring his total to 102 goals. He is now seven lengths from second place in the ranking of top scorers in the selection occupied by the Iranian Ali Daei (109). But still far from the Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo (122).
Scorer against Panama, Messi had already taken another step, that of the 800th career goal. Here too, the sevenfold Ballon d’Or is still well ahead of Ronaldo (who only has five).
This victory with goals from Nicolas Gonzalez (22), Enzo Fernandez (34), Angel di Maria (78 sp) and Gonzalo Montiel (86), should allow Argentina, already on the roof of the world, to seize first place in the FIFA rankings after Brazil’s defeat on Saturday against Morocco (2-1).
After the match, captain Messi once again lifted the World Cup (like Thursday after the match against Panama) and sang “Muchachos”, the team’s anthem for the World Cup, under a rain of glitter and a big fire. fireworks.
A last moment of intoxication before returning to daily life with Paris SG. His private plane was waiting for him on the tarmac at Santiago del Estero to return directly to France.