Lionel Messi's attitude compared to Cristiano Ronaldo's by Manchester United legend Gary Neville but
Lionel Messi's attitude in the first-half of Argentina's 2-0 win over Mexico was compared to Cristiano Ronaldo's at Manchester United by Gary Neville.
The Argentina icon wasn't as his best in the opening period of the game, despite later getting the game's opening goal and an assist for Enzo Fernandez's game-sealing strike.
And at half-time, with the score at 0-0, Red Devils hero Neville felt the Paris Saint-Germain forward was showing signs of his powers waning.
And he believed the first-half showing was reminiscent of Ronaldo's Old Trafford struggles.
The 47-year-old told ITV: “Players aren't fearful of Lionel Messi anymore. They are taking the ball off him easily.
“You can’t speak enough about how great this guy is.
"But honestly the devastation. I’ve seen at Old Trafford for 18 months, when a player of such stature has that body language, the impact it has on the players is devastating.
“He’s walking around the pitch, he’s shrugging his shoulders at them.”
Most read in Football
Messi did, of course, end up helping his side to victory, giving him the last laugh.
In the 64th minute of the game he stunned the Mexicans by receiving a pass from Angel Di Maria, taking a touch and firing past Guillermo Ochoa.
The strike then led Neville to admit Messi is still the same player 'in moments' while the PSG star celebrated in the changing room with his teammates.
And he will need to step up again on November 30 when Argentina face Poland - live on talkSPORT.
talkSPORT World Cup 2022 Coverage
talkSPORT will be offering wall-to-wall coverage of the 2022 World Cup
We'll be broadcasting all 64 games in the tournament live, with over 600 hours of coverage across our network.
You can tune in to talkSPORT and talkSPORT 2 via our free online streaming service at talkSPORT.com.
talkSPORT is widely available across the UK via DAB digital radio and on 1089 or 1053 AM.
You can also download the talkSPORT app, or ask your smart speaker to play talkSPORT.
ncG1vNJzZmiskaG4tLzOq6tnm5%2BifKe7zq2ZmqScZH5zgZdwbnFnnJ68r7HLZqSeq6OeeqS%2ByKyropmepHqzu82ao52nXaKur6%2FHnqqtnaJiwq%2B1056bZp%2BRp8ZuusSvoKWklWKus7PEp6uippFixLC%2By51knK2gYrqmxMicpmg%3D