Messi Sparkles Despite Miss As Argentina And Poland Survive

As Lionel Messi zigzagged this way and that it sometimes seemed that Argentina's No 10 must be electrically powered and perhaps operated by remote control.

- Louise Taylor

Although Alexis Mac Allister scored the vital breakthrough goal for Lionel Scaloni's side, it was Messi's dedication to, in equal measure, bewitching his adoring public and bewildering Poland that really made the difference.

Well before the end everyone had, almost, forgotten that a player who spent much of the game slaloming past often helpless markers had missed a first-half penalty. When the music stopped and the final whistle blew Manchester City's Julián Álvarez had joined Mac Allister on the scoresheet yet, miraculously, a thoroughly overwhelmed Poland still followed their tormentors into the last 16 thanks to a superior goal difference to Mexico.

Talk about progressing by the skin of your teeth. Had Lautaro Martínez not missed a late sitter for Argentina his opponents would have been boarding a return flight to Warsaw today.

At least it means Robert Lewandowski will fight another day at a World Cup. The traffic was far too one-way for Poland's talisman to make the desired impact but "Lewangoalski" surely deserves at least one more moment in the Doha sun.

Few would bet against it shining on Messi and Argentina for a while yet. If Messi exists in anyone's shadow it is that of the late Diego Maradona. In making his 22nd World Cup appearance he eclipsed his compatriot's tally of 21 games.

Statistics, though, were a mere sideshow on a night when Argentina fans demanded further evidence that their side's opening group game defeat to Saudi Arabia was a freak aberration. The South American hordes packing Stadium 974 needed reassurance that it had not been the first symptom of a worrying new structural fault line emerging within Scaloni's side.