Barcelona legend Lionel Messi sets unwanted World Cup record | OneFootball

Barcelona icon Lionel Messi has on Tuesday etched his name ever further into the history books of international football. Unfortunately for the 39-year-old, however, this comes for altogether less than positive reasons…

Messi’s Argentina are of course currently locked in action at the World Cup. With a place in the tournament’s quarter-finals on the line, the reigning champions have locked horns with African giants Egypt in Atlanta.

Messi, as expected, was afforded a starting berth for the evening, amid a memorable World Cup for the veteran frontman to date.

As alluded to above, however, things have since not gone exactly according to plan for Messi and his teammates…

After Egypt took a shock lead through Yasser Ibrahim early on, Argentina’s captain was afforded the chance to level things up from the penalty spot five minutes later.

Messi, however, saw his weak ensuing spot-kick kept out.

And owing to as much, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner has made fresh history on the international stage. As revealed by statisticians Opta:

‘Lionel Messi is the first player in World Cup history to miss two penalties at a single edition (excluding shootouts).’

Conor Laird – GSFN