Lionel Messi thumped home penalty for Argentina lead Julian Alvarez struck either side of half-time to wrap-up comprehensive victory.
Argentina have reached the World Cup final for the sixth time, doing so in two of the last three editions of the competition (also in 2014) – only Germany (8) have reached more finals in the competition than Argentina (6 – level with Italy and Brazil).
The dream that appeared to be going up in smoke when Saudi Arabia inflicted the shock of this FIFA World Cup is not only alive, it is 90 minutes from becoming reality. Lionel Messi is one match from crowning an extraordinary career with the prize he yearns the most.
Messi is the first Argentina player to score five goals in a FIFA World Cup since Gabriel Batistuta in 1998.
The 35-year-old tied Lothar Matthaus on a record 25 World Cup appearances.
Messi is the sixth player in FIFA World Cup history to score in the round of 16, quarter-finals and semi-finals in a single edition of the competition following Salvatore Schillaci (1990), Roberto Baggio (1994), Hristo Stoichkov (1994), Davor Suker (1998) and Wesley Sneijder (2010).
Lionel Messi has been involved in 19 goals at the World Cup (11 goals, 8 assists), equalling the best goals+assists tally for a player since 1966 (when data is available), previously set by Miroslav Klose, Ronaldo and Gerd Müller.
Lionel Messi has now scored 11 goals at the World Cup, the most of any Argentina player in the competition’s history
After the match Lionel Messi said “I feel a lot of things, it’s very exciting to see all this [celebrations in stadium]. Seeing the people, the family throughout the World Cup was incredible. We’re going for the last game, which was what we wanted.
“I don’t know if it’s my best World Cup or not. I’ve been enjoying this for a while. We were confident this group was going to pull it off. We know who we are, and we asked people to believe in us.
“We have been through tough situations, others very good. Today, we live something spectacular. I am enjoying with all these people and with all the Argentines who are in our country. I imagine it must be crazy. We knew we weren’t the top candidates [favourites for tournament], but we weren’t going to give anything to anyone. We were demonstrating it game-by-game. Argentina is, once again, in the final of the world. Enjoy!”
Bengali