Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thierry Henry have both hailed Lionel Messi’s “unstoppable” performance after the Argentina captain inspired a stunning comeback against Egypt at the World Cup in Atlanta on 7 July.
Argentina looked to be heading out of the tournament after falling 2-0 behind, but Messi scored and assisted goals within a span of four minutes before Enzo Fernandez headed home the winner in stoppage time to complete a 3-2 victory. Speaking on Fox Sports, former Barcelona teammate Ibrahimovic said the Argentina captain had been transformed once Egypt took their two goal lead. “Messi became an animal and nobody could catch him. He just went on, went on, and this is the one I saw, the one we’re used to seeing and that we are still seeing,” Ibrahimovic said. “You can still see also emotionally how much it means for him. Remember that he’s already won this World Cup, he already won a lot of trophies, the Ballon d’Or, everything. I can sit here and give his CV and it looks perfect. But he still wants it, and that is impressive.”
Henry, working alongside Ibrahimovic in the studio, agreed that Messi had once again defied logic. “He reminded us that he’s human, and then he reminds us again that he’s not human. What happened with Leo is that sometimes, do not wake up the beast,” Henry said. Ibrahimovic added that Messi’s response to going behind had been unmistakable. “You could see he wanted it when it was 0-2, something changed. He took command, he took the ball. He was after something, you could see it. He was on a mission. He will not let go. He did not want to leave this tournament.”
Messi was denied from the penalty spot for the second time this tournament before turning provider in the 79th minute, lofting a cross for Cristian Romero to head past goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir. Four minutes later, he smashed home the equaliser off the crossbar after Shobeir got a touch to his effort, his eighth goal of the competition, moving him a clear goal ahead of nearest challengers Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot. It also extended his all time World Cup scoring record to 21 goals and made him the first player in tournament history to score in six consecutive knockout matches.
“When they still need him, he raises his game,” Henry said. “He’s just unstoppable. This is Hollywood stuff. It’s almost like when you script that, it’s a movie that will never happen in real life. This guy writes history with his feet. It’s unreal.”
At 39, Messi has now played every minute of Argentina’s two World Cup knockout matches, a combined 210 minutes plus stoppage time in the space of five days, including extra time against Cape Verde in the previous round. He was in tears at the final whistle as he celebrated with Argentina’s supporters, with the defending champions set to face either Colombia or Switzerland in the quarter finals.
