Lionel Messi is undoubtedly one of the best players to ever play the round leather game but the FIFA World Cup trophy has remained elusive for the little genius. Messi was close to winning the trophy at the 2014 edition in Brazil before they were stopped in the final by Germany. The Germans beat Argentina 1-0 to win the tournament on South American soil for the first time in their history.
Substitutes Andre Schurrle and Mario Gotze combined for the latter to score the winning goal in extra time. Lionel Messi and Argentina failed to perform well in the next edition in Russia two years ago as they were eliminated at the round of 16 stage after the two-time world champions barely made it out of the group stage. Messi and Argentina have the opportunity to go one better than their achievement at Brazil 2014 when hostilities begin at the World Cup 2022 tournament but they need to qualify for the tournament.
Argentina have started well in their qualifiers for the World Cup 2022 tournament and they are on course to make it to the tournament. Lionel Messi and Argentina have started their World Cup 2022 qualifiers with a record of three wins and one draw from four matches. Argentina started their World Cup qualifying campaign with the slim 1-0 win over Ecuador at home. Messi scored the only goal of that game from the penalty spot on 13 minutes. The win over Ecuador was followed by 2-1 comeback victory over hosts Bolivia on matchday 2. Lautaro Martinez and Joaquin Correa were on target for Argentina.
Former world champions Argentina dropped points in the qualifiers for the first time with the 1-1 home draw with Paraguay on matchday three. On matchday four, Argentina beat Peru 2-0 away from home to return to winning ways courtesy the strikes from Nicholas Gonzalez and Lautaro Martinez.