Lionel Messi fired a timely warning to the rest of the participants at the 2018 FIFA World Cup as he netted a hat-trick to fire Argentina to a 4-0 win over Haiti in a friendly on Wednesday. La Albiceleste, chasing their first World Cup title since 1986, were dominant from the off and had the Haitians penned inside the own half early on and would take the lead in the 17th minute itself. Giovanni Lo Celso beat Ricardo Ade to the ball inside the box and promptly went down, leaving match referee Arnaldo Samaniego with no choice but to point to the spot.
Messi stepped up to take the spot-kick and duly converted, despite Haitian custodian Jonny Placide getting his fingertips to it. Jorge Sampaoli arguably named his strongest XI for the pre-World Cup friendly, with Gonzalo Higuain leading the attack, ed by Manuel Lanzini, Messi and Angel di Maria. Paulo Dybala’s omission from the starting XI was notable; however, the 2014 World Cup runners-up made light of the Juventus forward’s absence by putting Haiti to the sword in the second-half. The midfield duo of Javier Mascherano and Giovani Lo Celso were dictating the tempo of the game with ease, as their goal remained largely unthreatened in the first 45 minutes.
It took Argentina a while to find the second, with Messi coming to the fore again as he popped up with a close-range header to double their lead in the 58th minute. Sampaoli responded by ringing in the changes, and substitute Christian Pavon would set up Messi for yet another hat-trick in the 66th minute before the Barcelona superstar got his assist tally going by slipping in Sergio Aguero to score the fourth and compete the score line. Sampaoli’s men have a final warm-up clash left, as they play Israel on Saturday night before taking on Iceland in their World Cup opener on June 16. So far, so good for the South American giants as they seek to set their record in major international tournaments straight.
