The captain of the national team of Argentina, 

Lionel Messi

 , took second place in terms of goals as part of the national team at the world championships.

Messi opened the scoring in the 2022 World Cup Round of 16 match against Australia, in which the Albiceleste

won

 2:1.

This scored goal was the ninth for the seven-time winner of the "Golden Ball" at the world championships.

According to this indicator, he surpassed the legendary Diego Maradona, who scored eight goals at the World Cup.

Only Gabriel Batistuta scored more goals at the World Championships than Messi in the shirt of the Argentina national team - ten goals.

It is interesting that the goal against the Australians was only Messi's first in the World Cup playoffs.

Lionel scored the previous eight goals at the world championships in group stage matches.

Messi can equal Batistuta or break his record for goals as part of the national team at the world championships already in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup, where the Argentine team will be the opponent of the Netherlands.

The game will take place on Friday, December 9, starting at 21:00 Kyiv time.

We will remind you that the best scorer in the history of World Cups is the German striker Miroslav Klose, who scored 16 goals in 24 matches, playing in four World Cups in a row (2002, 2006, 2010, 2014).

Read also:

World Cup 2022: calendar and results of all matches

The Netherlands confidently defeated the USA and made it to the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup

France - Poland: where to watch and bookmakers' bets on the match of the round of 16 of the 2022 World Cup