Australia fans were left eating their words when Lionel Messi scored just seconds after members of the crowd could be heard singling out the Argentina captain during their knockout game on Saturday.
Argentina emerged as 2-1 victors from their World Cup round of 16 encounter with a spirited Australia side courtesy of goals from Messi and Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez.
A long-range shot from Craig Goodwin took a wicked deflection off of Enzo Fernandez to halve the deficit and make it a nervy last 13 minutes for the South Americans.
Advert
But Lionel Scaloni’s team held on to set up an enticing quarter-final tie with the Netherlands on Friday.
And, once again, it was Messi who earned the plaudits with a player-of-the-match display that had many drawing parallels to the World Cup winning Argentinian side from 1986, led by the late, great Diego Maradona.
Finding the net on what was his 1,000th career game, Messi was instrumental from start to finish, producing one of the finest individual performances of the tournament so far.
Advert
So when a portion of the Aussie following inside the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium could be heard chanting “Where is Messi? You're sh*t” they were perhaps tempting fate somewhat.
And sure enough, just moments later, Messi curled the ball into the far corner of the goal to open the scoring after some intricate build-up play involving Alexis Mac Allister and Nicolas Otamendi. Check out the video below:
A video showing the remarkable sequence was quickly posted online, with one user writing: “Literally the definition of instant karma.”
Advert
Another added: “I actually laughed out loud with that ‘AAAAAHHHHH AAAAAHHHHH!!!’ like he was in actual physical pain. Such a perfect comedic sequence.”
While a third posted: “Of all the people you could try to bait, you chose Messi? REALLY?”
Messi and co. need just three more victories to claim football’s greatest prize and one of the only trophies to have eluded the little magician in a dazzling 18-year career.
Featured Image Credit: AlamyTopics: Lionel Messi, Football World Cup, Argentina