MORE MAGIC FROM MESSI

Little genius pounces to send Argentina through in his 1,000th match

LIONEL MESSI marked his 1,000th senior appearance with a superb goal as Argentina booked their place in the World Cup quarter-finals by beating Australia.

Messi produced the first moment of quality to break the deadlock towards the end of the first half and Julian Alvarez pounced on a goalkeeping error to put two-time world champions Argentina in full control early in the second.

A delighted Messi said: ‘These are amazing feelings, I am really happy to share their beautiful moment with the fans. I know how much effort they have put into coming here and I know the whole of Argentina want to be here. The bonds, the union we have is something beautiful.

‘It is unbelievable, the fans’ passion, energy and joy. It is unbelievable.

‘From the start to the end I am thinking about my children, as they are growing and understand better and enjoy it more.

‘They are living it from inside and I see how they suffer and enjoy it. That is spectacular. They are excited as all Argentinians are.’

Australia went down fighting at the Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium and ensured an anxious finale after Craig Goodwin’s deflected shot reduced the deficit.

And it needed a superb last-ditch tackle from Argentina defender Lisandro Martinez to deny Dundee United defender Aziz Behich what would have

been a stunning equaliser in the 80th minute. A last-eight clash with the Netherlands on Friday now awaits Argentina, who recovered from a shock 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia in their opening match of the tournament to finish top of Group C.

Former Argentina and Manchester City defender Pablo Zabaleta later insisted that Argentina were relying too much on Messi.

He told the BBC: ‘We are still relying on Messi too much. The first half was not good enough and we needed to play a lot quicker. When Messi is on the ball, he is the only one who brings so much danger and a real threat going forward.

‘I think Messi knows that this is his last World Cup and you can really see that he is enjoying it.

‘Messi producing those moments of magic and you can see the fans just loving it. The fans just behind the goal are still there, just singing and bouncing.

‘Netherlands had a good win today against the USA. They have a good team, nothing special but the same for Argentina. It’s going to be another tough game for sure. Quarter-final, another big game for both teams. Both Netherlands wing-backs were really good today.’