Published: Dec 01, 2022, 03:10 PM (IST)
Edited: Dec 01, 2022, 03:11 PM (IST)
Doha: When Poland goakeeper Wojciech Szczesny blocked Lionel Messi’s penalty kick on Thursday at Stadium 974, the Argentina captain joined former Ghana striker Asamoah Gyan by becoming only the second player in FIFA World Cup history to have two spot kicks saved.
Argentina were awarded the penalty in an controversial matter on 36 minutes when both Messi and Szczęsny missed while approaching an aerial ball. As both missed, Szczęsny made slight contact with Messi’s face before the latter went down.
The referee took help of VAR and awarded the penalty to Argentina, much to the disbelief of the Polish players. Messi’s lacklustre effort was blocked by Szczęsny who dived to his right and the Paris Saint-Germain star looked in despair.
While Messi was having a bad day at office, it was squad’s less celebrated names, Alexis McAllister and Julian Alvarez, who scored a goal each in the second half to put Lionel Scaloni’s men through to the round of 16.
Messi’s had his first World Cup penalty saved in 2018 against Iceland in Russia. Gyan’s missed penalties came against Czech Republic (2006) and Uruguay (2010). Meanwhile, with the game against Poland, Messi played his 999th senior career game (club and country).
Argentina’s match against Poland was also his record 22nd appearance for the country in World Cups surpassing late Diego Maradona. Overall, Messi is fourth on the list of all-time World Cup appearances behind Paolo Maldini (23) of Italy and Germany’s Miroslav Klose (24) and Lothar Matthaus (25).
On the other hand, Szczęsny also became the third goalkeeper after USA’s Brad Friedel (2002) and Poland’s Jan Tomaszewski (1974) to save two spot kicks in a single edition of a World Cup.
