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Football

Lionel Messi Crosses 100 Goals for Argentina in Curacao Friendly

Argentina and Curaçao met for a friendly on Tuesday, and it was another historic night for Argentina captain Lionel Messi. The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner passed the 100-goal mark for the national team after pulling a hat-trick against Curaçao. Messi was on fire since the very start and put Argentina on the scoreboard 20 minutes into the game. To make the whole thing even more impressive, he scored a total of three goals in the first half, over the course of just 17 minutes. Nicolas Gonzalez, Enzo Fernandez, Angel di Maria, and Gonzalo Montiel also contributed to Argentina’s thrashing of Curaçao and helped their side score a 7-0 win in Santiago del Estero on Tuesday. Argentina’s coach, Lionel Scaloni, had nothing but words of praise for Messi after the match and expressed hope these won’t be his last goals for the national team. “We will never stop celebrating and I think it’s fair and deserved. I hope there will be more [Messi goals]. He deserves all the praise and it’s good that these goals were on Argentine soil, that has a special value too,” he said after the match. Messi is only the third player in history to score 100 international goals, joining in the ranks of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Iran’s Ali Daei.