{"id":519747,"date":"2026-07-10T19:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519747\/"},"modified":"2026-07-10T19:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-10T19:54:09","slug":"fifa-world-cup-lionel-messi-leads-argentina-world-cup-charge-despite-poor-penalty-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/519747\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Lionel Messi leads Argentina World Cup charge despite poor penalty form"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was already the second time Messi had failed to net a penalty at this tournament \u2013 he fired wide against Austria in the group stages<\/a> \u2013 becoming the only player to miss more than one in any World Cup.<\/p>\n

Adding to misses against Iceland in 2018 and Poland four years ago, Messi\u2019s failure to score four World Cup penalties is another record, but an unwanted one.<\/p>\n

His overall career conversion rate of 116 goals from 150 attempts (77%) from the spot is bang on the global average.<\/p>\n

What stands out is such a frailty for a player who is anything but average.<\/p>\n

When he missed in a shootout against Chile in the final of the Copa America Centenario in 2016, a devastated Messi broke down in tears and promptly announced a shock retirement from international football.<\/p>\n

At the time he had yet to win a major tournament with Argentina and, despite his brilliance for Barcelona, he had been unable to follow in the footsteps of Diego Maradona by winning the World Cup<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Within a few months he reversed that retirement. A decade on those doubts are long forgotten, with Messi the figurehead for two Copa America triumphs and Argentina\u2019s long-awaited third World Cup four years ago in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u2018Look at his attitude\u2019<\/p>\n

Against Egypt, there were more tears, happy ones this time, with Messi overcome with emotion at a remarkable turnaround.<\/p>\n

His cross for Cristian Romero to head in<\/a> and score in the 79th minute and make the scoreline 2-1 started a remarkable Argentina fightback, as the champions dragged themselves off the canvas to remain in contention.<\/p>\n

Messi drilled in the equaliser himself, scoring for an eighth consecutive World Cup game and taking his tally to eight goals in five games at this tournament.<\/p>\n

Enzo Fernandez added the final blow as Lionel Scaloni\u2019s men won 3-2 to remain in the running to defend the title.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo the guys on the bench, the ones watching him in disbelief; I want them to take him as an example. It is truly something wonderful,\u201d said Scaloni.<\/p>\n

\u201cLook at his attitude! After the penalty he could have given up \u2013 \u2018we\u2019re done, it\u2019s 2-0\u2032 \u2013 but instead, he asked for the ball again and went for more.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt gives me goosebumps, honestly, and it\u2019s not just him, I don\u2019t want to focus solely on him because his teammates supported him incredibly well. That is part of what defines this group.\u201d<\/p>\n

Argentina\u2019s flaws have been exposed in the knockout stages by far from stellar opposition in Cape Verde<\/a> and Egypt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Scaloni\u2019s side have been cut open on the counter-attack and an ageing squad already looks short on energy.<\/p>\n

Tougher tests await with Switzerland in the last eight, followed by a semi-final showdown against either England or Norway.<\/a><\/p>\n

But Messi\u2019s refusal to allow Argentina to exit the World Cup stage means there remains hope of adding a fourth star to the famous blue and white shirt.<\/p>\n

\u2013 AFP<\/p>\n

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was already the second time Messi had failed to net a penalty at this tournament \u2013 he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[74,24752,12587,8239,8018,111384,32294,257785,10542,127,36862,5904,5213,16555,71,1019,296,22055,168033,5268,118355,111,139,69,6029,23941,29848,25319,213,377,1530],"class_list":["post-519747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-after","tag-ago","tag-america","tag-american","tag-argentina","tag-blasting","tag-charge","tag-copa","tag-cup","tag-despite","tag-fifa","tag-final","tag-football","tag-form","tag-from","tag-international","tag-into","tag-leads","tag-lionel","tag-lose","tag-messi","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-once","tag-penalty","tag-poor","tag-retired","tag-sports","tag-world","tag-years"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}