Lionel Messi once again showed why he is the best in the world by scoring all five goals in Argentina’s 5-0 win over Estonia on Sunday.
In dominant fashion, Lionel Scaloni’s men accounted for 79% of ball possession, 24 shots, and 10 on goal, winning their unbeaten run to 33 games. With Messi turning 35 in the summer, he will once again be a key player for Argentina at the World Cup and his stats in the match against Estonia prove just that.
Here are some amazing stats after his latest training session.
- Messi is the first player in the history of the Argentine national team to score five goals in one match.
- It was the eighth time he scored a hat-trick for the national team and his 56th career hat-trick, putting him in fourth place behind long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo.
- This was the second time in Messi’s career that he scored five goals in one match. The last time the Champions League won 7-1 against Bayer Leverkusen again was in March 2012.
- With his last five goals, Messi has now surpassed Hungary legend, Ferenc Puskas, for international goals. Only Mokhtar Al Dhaheri of Malaysia, Ali Daei of Iran and Ronaldo of Portugal scored more goals for the national team than Messi.
- The 34-year-old has scored 10 goals in his last 10 games for Argentina, a streak that also included a hat-trick against Bolivia and his MVP display in the final against Italy.
- Messi cemented his lead as the all-time leading scorer for the South American Nations. He is now nine goals ahead of Pele’s total of 77 goals for Brazil – the previous record. He is now also ahead of Pele in terms of total career goals – 769 vs. 767 for the Brazilian icon.
- The Argentine scored 86 international goals in 162 matches. That’s an average of 0.53 goals per game – in other words, roughly one goal every two matches.
- No player in the history of football has more goals and assists than Messi. He has now reached 1,100 direct goal contributions – 769 goals and 331 assists in 974 appearances for club and country.
