MESSI’S A WIZARD AGAINST OZ

Record-breaker sets up Dutch clash with a moment of magic as he eyes holy grail

ADMITTED to a Brazilian hospital for palliative care after colon cancer proved his toughest opponent yet, news of Pele’s fading health confirms an unpalatable truth. While football’s greatest players achieve immortality on the pitch, they’ve yet to find some way to halt the march of time off it.

Lionel Messi has barely reached the midway point of his extraordinary life. He has so much to do, so much to achieve. Yet the sense of a player engaged in a race against Old Father Time is proving hard to ignore.

The 1,000th appearance of his career was marked by another moment of Messi magic. In honour of a first appearance in the last 16 since 2006, Australia lit up the Sydney Opera House. In honour of his first ever goal in a World Cup knock-out game, the PSG superstar lit up a stadium in the Qatari desert.

In 1986, Diego Maradona singlehandedly led Argentina to World Cup glory in Mexico. On a night when he surpassed Maradona’s Argentine appearance record, Messi offers the best hope of history repeating itself.

Smashing through barriers, setting new records, is one thing. Until the little No10 shatters the toughest glass ceiling of them all by raising the World Cup above his head, however, the GOAT tag will always come with an asterisk. At the age of 35, Qatar is surely his last throw of the dice.

The proof that time waits for no man came with a curious quirk. In 1993, Australia boss Graham Arnold played against current Argentina international Alexis Mac Allister’s dad, Carlos Javier. And, when one of the battle-scarred old survivors of Aussie football promised the Argentines a war, he wasn’t kidding.

For St Mirren’s Keanu Baccus, nights like this are the stuff of dreams. The 24-year-old left Western Sydney Wanderers for Paisley in the summer. A secondhalf substitute in the shock 1-0 win over Denmark, the midfielder was pitched in from the start here, leaving the fray immediately after keeper Mat Ryan’s howler gifted Argentina a second goal in the 57th minute.

None of which alters the fact that the young Aussie will never play a bigger game in his life. You could say the same of every player in a yellow shirt.

The closest Scotland has come to having a team at the World Cup for two decades, Celtic’s Aaron Mooy anchored the midfield alongside Jackson Irvine, the former Parkhead youth player who also spent time at Kilmarnock, Ross County and Hibs. Hearts defender Kye Rowles sat behind alongside Harry Souttar, the Aberdeenshire-born brother of Rangers defender John. Dundee United’s Aziz Behich retained his place at left-back and almost dragged the game to extra-time with the goal of the tournament.

That seemed an unlikely scenario when a moment of magnificent Messi almost raised the roof off the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium.

Australia spent the first half hour stroking and passing the ball around with confidence. Just when they thought they’d cracked it, the little magician gathered a deft touch from Nicolas Otamendi after 35 minutes and simply passed the ball into the bottom corner of the net past Australia keeper Ryan. It was a moment of captivating brilliance.

Argentina now face the Netherlands on Friday in the Lusail Stadium for a place in the semi-finals. After losing only the second World Cup knock-out game in their history — they also lost to Italy in 2006 — Australia fly home.

Any real hope of a fightback disappeared during a moment of horror for keeper and captain Ryan after 57 minutes.

Dealing with a back pass the Aussie custodian did the one thing no keeper can do against Argentina. Attempting to dribble out past Rodrigo de Paul he took a heavy touch. Manchester City striker Julian Alvaro nicked the ball and placed the ball into an empty net.

Eight of Argentina’s last 15 matches in the World Cup knockout rounds had gone to extra-time. With half an hour to play, Argentina leading 2-0 and the crowd in magnificent voice, this one looked unlikely to follow the trend.

If any team deserved a bit of luck, however, it was this down-to-earth, outstandingly hard-working Aussies. With 13 minutes to play a cross from Behich fell enticingly to substitute Craig Goodwin.

There was no way the striker’s shot from 25 yards was going in. Row Z of the upper tier looked a likelier destination until it took a vicious deflection off Enzo Fernandez and ricochetted into the bottom corner of the net.

Despite winning eight of their nine round of 16 games at this level Argentina’s run ended in Russia in 2018 when they suffered a 4-3 defeat to France.

Who knows how this one would have ended if Behich had scored the best goal by a Dundee United player at the World Cup finals since David Narey at Spain ’82? The only goal, come to think of it.

With eight minutes to play the left-back went on the kind of mazy solo run Messi himself would have been proud of. Dribbling past several players the defender cut inside Nicolas Otamendi. Just as he prepared to pull the trigger at the end of a wonderful run Lisandro Martinez threw himself at the shot and saved Argentina.

What a brilliant go Australia gave it during seven minutes of added time when a crucial save from keeper Martinez prevented substitute Garang Kuol from taking the game to an extra 30 minutes.

Argentina’s relief at full-time told the story of an outstanding World Cup for the Socceroos. Boss Arnold said he wanted to put a smile on the faces of countrymen everywhere.

On a night when he and his Australian team did their bit the same can’t be said of the little man marking his 1,000th appearance by leading his country one step closer to the holy grail.