Lionel Messi and Argentina’s World Cup defence continues with Egypt clash: Live updates

Lisandro Martinez stood a few yards inside Cape Verde’s half, looked up and saw Lionel Messi making a run.

From that moment, there was only one place the defender’s pass was going to be delivered. As it came over the top of Messi’s shoulder and he controlled it beautifully with his left foot, there was a sense of inevitability about what would happen next.

With Messi’s next touch of the ball, it was struck past Vozinha and into the back of the net.

More significantly was that it further extended — for the moment — Messi’s lead over Kylian Mbappe as the World Cup’s greatest goalscorer, now on 20 goals.

The 39-year-old has scored in a record eight successive World Cup matches and is even closing down Just Fontaine’s all-time record of 13 goals in a single tournament.

Fontaine, a former French international, set this record at the 1958 World Cup and managed it in only six matches.

If Argentina reach the final, Messi will have four more games to chase down Fontaine’s long-standing tally — starting today against Egypt.

It seems unattainable, but can you write off arguably the greatest player to ever kick a football?