Messi scores hat-trick to shoot past 100-goal mark

Argentina’s football legend Lionel Messi scored three goals in a row against Curacao on Wednesday to shoot past the 100-goal mark at the international level of the game.

The 35-year-old Messi became only the third player in the world to achieve the 100-goal mark after his arch-rival Cristiano Ronaldo (122) and Iran’s Ali Daei (109). Along with this, he is the first South American player to achieve this feat putting him ahead of all-time greats such as Maradona, Pele and Neymar.

He broke the stalemate in the 20th minute of the game in brilliant style to get his 100th goal at the international level. Giovani Lo Celso passed the ball to Messi inside the box who beat the goalkeeper to put the ball in the bottom corner of the goal.

Nicoloas Gonzalez got the second goal of the game three minutes later. Messi found the back of the net again ten minutes later to claim his second goal of the game.

In the next four minutes, Argentina scored twice to make it 4-0 before the halftime mark. Messi scored the fourth goal of the match to claim his ninth hat trick in Argentinian colours. Argentina inflicted a crushing 7-0 defeat on Curacao.

Messi expressed his happiness with an Instagram post and wrote in the caption, “What a nice way to close these dates, impressive today all the people in Santiago del Estero. I wish we can continue to share together many moments like these and that this craziness never ends!!!”