Argentina’s star footballer Lionel Messi has become the most goalscorer South American player in international football, breaking the 50-year-old record of the legend Pele. The 34-year-old Messi scored a brilliant hat-trick for Argentina in a South American World Cup qualifier football match as his team registered a 3-0 win over Bolivia.
With this hat-trick, his international goal count has now reached 79, two more than Pele (77 goals). Messi has now moved to fifth place in this list, while Cristiano Ronaldo remains at the top with 111 international goals. Messi has played 153 matches for Argentina, while Pele scored 77 goals in 92 matches for Brazil. Pele played his last match in July 1971.
Argentina’s victory against Bolivia, which was considered weak, was considered certain. In the first half itself, Messi was seen in his color and in the 14th minute, he sent the ball inside the goal post with a brilliant left footed kick from outside the box. In this way Argentina scored the first goal in the match.
After this, in the second half also Messi scored the goal for Argentina. He scored the second goal in the 64th minute and then completed his hat-trick with a goal in the last minute of the match in the 88th minute to give the team a 3-0 win. On the other hand, Bolivia tried to score a total of seven times during the match but could not succeed. Watch football highlights of Argentina win over Bolivia.
In the other match, Brazil beat Peru 2-0 with a brilliant game from Neymar, their eighth win in eight matches. Brazil has 24 points and Argentina is second with 18 points. Both these teams have played eight matches each. Uruguay is in third place. In another match, they beat Ecuador 1-0. The top four teams in the South American qualifiers will advance directly to the World Cup in Qatar, while the fifth-placed team will play in the intercontinental play-offs.
