Even the greatest players have certain weaknesses, penalties are Messi's sore point

Lionel Messi continues to make history at the World Cup, the Argentine magician has been recording unbelievable numbers since the start of the championship, breaking records and carrying Argentina to the very end.

He started with a hat-trick against Algeria, scored twice against Austria, scored against Jordan in a match he started from the bench, checked Vozinha in the round of 32 against Cape Verde, and then left the "gauchos" in the World Cup with the equalizer in a victory over Egypt.

He is the top scorer in the championship with eight goals, the best in history with 21 goals. He scored at least one goal in nine consecutive games at the World Cup, and six of those nine were in the knockout stage... And these are just some of the records that Messi broke at the World Cup.

Records are numerous, Messi has written and continues to write history. On his wings, Argentina fantasizes, the "gauchos" dream and believe that they can defend the title and become the first team after Brazil to do so. "Seleção" won the title in Sweden in 1958, and then defended the throne four years later in Chile. Since then, the national teams have changed hands at the top of the world, none of them has won the World Cup twice in a row.

But, in the sea of ​​records, there is also a negative one. The Argentine is the first footballer ever to miss two penalties at a World Cup - one against Austria in the second round of the group stage, the other last night against Egypt. And that statistic doesn't include penalty shootouts.

Total - Messi has taken eight shots at World Cups (excluding penalty shootouts), and was accurate four times. In addition to Austria and Egypt, he missed against Iceland in 2018 and Poland in 2022. He scored against Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands, Croatia and France in Qatar in 2022. He also scored against the "tulas" and the "tricolor" in the penalty shootout four years ago.

In his international career, Messi has taken 32 penalties and missed seven. Looking at his entire career, the magician from Rosario has taken 150 penalty kicks - 116 of which were accurate.

Messi has been taking penalties throughout his career. Let's go back to 2005, when the Argentine scored two goals from 11 meters in the final against Nigeria at the Under-20 World Cup, bringing the "gauchos" the title (2:1). The goalkeeper of the African national team missed both times.

When it comes to penalty kicks in the penalty shootout, Messi has shot nine times and missed twice, both times at the Copa America - he was inaccurate in the final against Chile in 2016, when the "gauchos" were defeated, and eight years later, when Argentina eliminated Ecuador in the quarterfinals.

But Messi made up for these failures in other ways. Against Austria, he scored a goal after missing a penalty, and against Egypt, he scored and assisted Romero for the "gauchos'" first goal.

Even the greatest players have weaknesses - penalties are Messi's.