Thierry Henry sends England a pointed Lionel Messi message: ‘Don’t wake the beast’ | OneFootball

Thierry Henry eulogised about Lionel Messi after the Argentina captain inspired his side’s comeback against England in the World Cup semi-finals.

Messi was relatively quiet prior to England going ahead in the 55th minute but the 39-year-old, arguably the greatest player of all time, came alive late on as he set up both of Argentina’s late goals to break England hearts.

With the Three Lions opting to sit deep with five at the back, Messi saw more of the ball on the right-hand side and was instrumental in setting up chance after chance for the defending champions.

Messi was also embroiled in a heated exchange with Jude Bellingham and French World Cup winner Henry, a former teammate of Messi at Barcelona, insisted England made a mistake in triggering Messi to find his best form.

“He reminded us he is human; he missed some penalties, four out of eight,” Henry told FOX. “Then he reminds us again he’s not human. I’ve played with him as you just mentioned. What happens with Leo, sometimes... don’t wake up the beast.

“I’ve seen him in training… when the coach doesn’t call a foul, the coach was like ‘stop complaining’ when the ball went out. Then you look in his eyes and he switches. He goes and gets the ball and scores three goals in a row by robbing the ball off you. Next time, call a foul!

“He’s just unstoppable when he goes into that mood. When his team needs him, he raises his game, a guy who played 120 minutes the other day, gets the ball and tries to dribble past everybody… wow.”

Henry added that Messi, chasing a second consecutive World Cup triumph ahead of the final against Spain on Sunday, “writes history with his feet” as he eyes a “Hollywood” ending to an international career likely to conclude this summer.

Lionel Messi set up both Argentina goals in their 2-1 comeback win against England (PA Wire)

“Looking at him, I was just remembering playing with him,” Henry said. “I’ve played with Zizou (Zinedine Zidane), Ronaldinho… it’s not shameful to say that at times he scored some goals and it took me 2 seconds and I just said ‘wow’

“When you’re playing, it doesn’t happen often to me. He’s one of a kind – I had the opportunity to play with him for three years, wow.

“This is Hollywood stuff. It’s almost like when you script that.. it’s a movie which won’t happen in real life, the director went a bit too far with that one, but Messi writes it.

“This guy writes history with his feet, though, not with his hands.”

While Argentina head to New York for the final against Spain, England will move on to Miami for the bronze final versus France on Saturday.