Argentina and Mexico faced off on Saturday evening in their second group game of the World Cup.
Argentina headed into the game on the back of a shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in the opening match week.
Mexico, meanwhile, were held to a 0-0 draw by Poland, so both sides needed a win on Saturday.
It was Argentina who came away with a win, though, with Lionel Messi scoring their first and setting up their second.
Following that game, Messi has stated that Saturday was Argentina’s true debut at the World Cup:
“We lived with discomfort given the defeat in the opening match [against Saudi Arabia] was something we didn’t expect. The days felt very long and we were eager to have the chance to turn it around,” he said.
“We knew it was a critical game. Luckily we had the option to win and it was a weight off our shoulders, a reason for joy and peace of mind because it is all down to us again. We needed this result, it seems like in the second half we made our true debut.
“Today starts another World Cup for Argentina,” Messi said. “I tell people the same thing, that they continue to believe. Today we did what we had to do.
“We had no other choice. We had to win so that we depended only on ourselves.
“The first half we didn’t play as we should and in the second, when we calmed down, we started to play the ball better and until the goal we went back to being what we are.”
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