Messi misses pen and loses chance to stand alone as World Cup top scorer | OneFootball

Lionel Messi missed a golden chance to become the outright top scorer in World Cup history.

The Argentine legend had a penalty early in the match against Austria and sent the ball wide.

He came into the game tied with Miroslav Klose at the top of the tournament’s all-time scoring chart, with 16 goals each.

When the referee awarded the penalty after a VAR review, everything seemed to be lining up for Messi to overtake the German.

And when the shot went wide, the reaction on social media was one of surprise. But some also pointed to his not-so-great record from the penalty spot.

Messi also became the player with the most missed penalties in World Cup history (3). He is also the player who has taken the most penalties in World Cup matches (7).

The other two penalties missed by the Argentine star at World Cups also came in group-stage matches, but in those cases the opposing goalkeepers were the main protagonists.

In 2018, Iceland’s Hannes Halldórsson made the save. In 2022, it was Wojciech Szczesny’s turn to shine.

Curiously, the last time Argentina missed a World Cup penalty with the ball going wide was in 1990, from a spot kick taken by none other than Diego Armando Maradona.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.

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