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Lionel Messi · Argentina · Lionel Scaloni

Messi's last night for Argentina: a hand in all three goals, and 126 in 208

By the Data Desk ·

Lionel Messi played his 208th and last game for Argentina on Tuesday night and had a hand in every goal of a 3-0 win over Benin at the Monumental in Buenos Aires. He set up Nicolás Otamendi and Nico Paz, then scored a penalty in the 71st minute for his 126th international goal.

  • Argentina 3-0 Benin: Messi assisted Otamendi from a corner and Nico Paz, then scored a 71st-minute penalty.
  • He leaves with 208 caps and 126 goals, both Argentina records, after 21 years with the national team.
  • Scaloni admits Argentina will find it hard without him and says only the team as a whole can replace him.
Why it mattersThis was the end of the longest and most decorated international career Argentina has had. From November, Scaloni has to build a team that wins without the player who settled the tight nights for 21 years.

About 85,000 people filled the Monumental for a friendly that was never really about Benin. The game stopped in the 10th minute, for his shirt number, so the stadium could stand and applaud him. Messi went close several times in the first half, with a free kick and a shot the Benin goalkeeper kept out.

The goals came after the break. Otamendi scored from Messi’s corner early in the second half, Messi then set up Nico Paz, and in the 71st minute he took the penalty himself. Three goals, three involvements: one last time, everything went through him.

The numbers he leaves behind are 208 caps and 126 goals, both national records. With Argentina he won the 2022 World Cup, the Copa América in 2021 and 2024 and the 2022 Finalissima, and lost two World Cup finals, in 2014 and in North America this summer.

After the game Messi called it “el día más triste de mi carrera”, the saddest day of his career, and thanked the teammates who had made him “campeón de todo”. Scaloni, in tears during the anthem, said Argentina will go on but that it will be hard without him.

Our take

Argentina lose the player who did it alone

Our editorial team reads the 3-0 as a summary, not a farewell gift. Every goal of his last game passed through Messi, and that is exactly what Argentina now have to replace: not a No 10 shirt, but the player who unlocked a bad night with one pass. Scaloni says the answer is the collective, and with this generation we think he is right about the results; what goes is the certainty in tight games. If Argentina go through the November window without a narrow game they cannot unlock, we will say we were wrong.

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