Read for 5 minutesMumbaiUpdated: 16 Jul 2026 05:00 PM IST
Lionel Messi just looked up, missing a heartbeat.
It was stoppage time for the World Cup semi-final. Argentina had redeemed themselves once before and now had one last chance to avoid extra time. A wall of white shirts stood inside England’s penalty area. One defender rushed to close down Messi, while another threw out a desperate leg to block a cross. Three more occupied the six-yard box, each standing where the delivery was supposed to land. Jordan Pickford lurked behind them, waiting for anything to overheat.
There was no passing lane. or so it seemed.
Messi’s right foot shot the ball into the night sky. It rose to the first challenge, inches over the heads of the England defenders, out of Pickford’s reach, leaving him in a quandary of whether to commit or leave, and the moment Lautaro Martinez reached the far post it was almost impossible. The Argentine striker nodded the winner to take the defending champions to a second consecutive final, the ball having gone over almost the entire England defense before landing gently on his forehead.
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Zlatan Ibrahimovic, the Swedish great, put in a strong performance the fox: “I said yesterday you were going to see God’s left foot. You got to see God’s right foot… beautiful moment.”
Football has always celebrated players who beat defenders with feints and dribbles.
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Diego Maradona’s ‘goal of the century’ against England in 1986 is perhaps the sport’s greatest act of individual brilliance. Starting in his own half, he dribbled past five outfield players, rounded Peter Shilton and slotted the ball into an empty net. Forty years later, against the same opposition, Argentina produced another moment in the same conversation. Maradona carried the ball and fouled six Englishmen. Messi completed the six with a cross.
Messi has also made those woven runs. A slalom against Getafe, a run through Athletic Bilbao and countless solo goals for Barcelona belonged to a footballer who bent matches with his feet, at will. That version of Messi is gone.
Argentina’s Lionel Messi vs England in the World Cup semi-final. (AP)
Age takes away the explosive first step, the relentless dribble and the ability to outplay young players for 90 minutes. What it cannot touch is vision. If anything, it sharpens it.
At 39, Messi solves football’s problems in a different way.
Against England, he didn’t look at the defenders. He was looking beyond them. Where most footballers would have seen bodies crowding the penalty area, Messi saw a passage that was not through the defenders but above them.
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The margin of error was slim. One degree less and it hits the defender. A degree longer and Pickford claims. One degree less and the opportunity disappears. The window only existed for a second.
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Messi found the only solution: going to Hawaii. Perhaps even more surprising was the leg he used.
For nearly two decades, coaches have devised schemes to force Messi to his weaker side. Every full back he has faced has been told the same thing: don’t let him get in to his left. England did the same. For a fleeting moment, it looked as if Messi would check back and pass possession to a teammate waiting outside the box.
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Instead, he relied on his weak right leg. The cross he creates is something that many elite wingers will struggle to deliver with their stronger wingers. As much as the execution was done, the ingenuity was also extreme. He saw an angle that did not exist and a space that only appeared as the ball traveled.
This assist deserves to sit alongside Messi’s greatest goals. Not just because it was spectacular at first glance, but because it seems even more impossible with each replay. One look at it and it looks like a thin cross. Watch it again and start counting the guards you clear. Freeze frame and you’ll wonder how the ball made its way through a non-existent corridor.
At 25, Messi must have dribbled through six defenders. Now, he just looks up, trusts his weaker right leg and carries the ball to him, and Argentina reaches another World Cup final.