MAHLATSE MPHAHLELE IN QATAR | When Argentina needed him Messi stood up

When they needed their talisman and maestro most, he stood up to be counted.

The clock had already gone past the hour-mark in a tightly contested and highly tactical match between sworn Latin American rivals Argentina and Mexico when Lionel Messi took responsibility to put La Albiceleste ahead and keep them in the Fifa World Cup.

With that educated left foot, calmly Messi controlled a pass from Ángel Di María before rifling the ball with precision beyond the outstretched arms of Mexican goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa into the bottom corner for the opener.

To find the back of the net and pry open the tightly-contested affair, Messi had to evade a tackle from advancing Mexican midfielder Héctor Herrera who was trying to close him down on the edge of the box.

The celebration, which saw Messi sprint wildly into Di María’s arms before he was covered by a pile of bodies by delirious teammates, showed what the goal meant for Argentina.

Failure to get a win against Mexico would have left Messi and Argentina, among the bookies’ and pundits’ favourites, facing the bleak prospect and embarrassment of early elimination from the tournament.

It would also have opened up the grim possibility that the arguably best player of his generation would retire from international football without the World Cup.

Messi’s left-foot finish was later outdone by the delicious curling effort by young midfielder Enzo Fernández who is making waves in Portugal where he plays for Benfica.

The much-needed win secured in front of almost 88,966 raucous spectators — both teams have armies of travelling fans — at Lusail Stadium, has breathed life into Argentina in this World Cup but they still have a lot of work to do.

Argentina will be guaranteed a place in the last-16 if they defeat Poland on Wednesday as Messi continues the search for the only football medal that is missing from his trophy cabinet.

Though focus fell on the goals of Messi and Fernández, it was team effort from coach Lionel Scaloni’s men.

In defence, Scaloni went with the experience of Nicolas Otamendi and Lisandro Martinez and key players in his midfield were Di María, Marcos Acuna, Guido Rodriquez and Alexis MacAllister. Upfront, the main man was Messi but he had able support from Inter Milan’s Lautaro Martinez.

For Mexico, defeat followed their scoreless opening draw against Poland leaving them serious outsiders to make it to the last-16. The central Americans have to defeat Saudi Arabia in their final game while hoping Poland do the same to Argentina.

If they don’t make it to the knockout stage, it will be another disappointing World Cup appearance for perennial qualifiers El Tri who have a number of players approaching the end of their careers.

It is unlikely players such as Guillermo Ochoa, who is appearing in his fifth World Cup, Héctor Moreno, Néstor Araujo, Héctor Moreno, Héctor Herrera and Andrés Guardado will be around in four years’ time.

Whether still under Gerardo Martino, or another coach, Mexican football has to rebuild and look to younger players like Kevin Álvarez, César Montes, Jesús Gallardo, Luis Chávez, Alexis Vega and Hirving Lozano to take the team forward.

For now, the focus for Argentina and Mexico is firmly their huge finale against Poland and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.

* Mahlatse Mphahlele is in Doha as a guest of SuperSport

* All the World Cup groups, fixtures and results here

* All the World Cup squads here

* All the World Cup groups profiled here

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