Lionel Messi's farewell World Cup continues. The defending champions have barely broken a sweat in Group J, and this fixture against Jordan — heroic in qualifying but overmatched here — promises one thing: a Messi masterclass for the ages as the GOAT bids to go out on the highest note imaginable.
Jordan's players will spend 90 minutes trying to stop the man they've watched on YouTube their entire lives. It's a beautiful, hopeless task — and the stuff of football legend if they can pull off even a semblance of resistance.
4-3-3 with Messi roaming freely from the right. Di María and Lautaro provide directness; Otamendi and Lisandro Martínez are the defensive bedrock. Argentina don't even need to press — they simply wait and punish.
Coach Hussein Ammouta organises them in a 5-4-1 block. The message: make it hard, keep it tight, give nothing away cheaply. Jordan's only path to anything is set pieces and the occasional transition — they'll take whatever they can get.
Argentina are surgical. Messi opens the scoring with a free kick after 12 minutes — an inch-perfect curl over the wall. Lautaro Martínez adds a second from a Messi assist just before half-time. The question becomes: how many?
Second half sees Argentina ease off but Messi, playing as if he knows this might be his last group-stage appearance ever, refuses to rest on his laurels. Julián Álvarez makes it three from another Messi through ball. Di María caps a 4–0 evening with a late header. Standing ovation. Full time: Argentina 4–0 Jordan.
A farewell gift from the Argentine machine. Di María may be bowing out in style alongside his captain.
It may be his last group-stage match at a World Cup. Even at 38, when Messi decides a game must be brilliant, it is brilliant. Don't look away.