Lionel Messi has been in the spotlight today following his penalty miss for Argentina today against Iceland in their opening World Cup 2018 group game.
Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero has scored his first goal at a World Cup as Argentina took the lead before Alfred Finnbogason equalised from close-range.
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However, after Cristiano Ronaldo’s heroics last night against Spain from dead-ball situations, Messi was handed the chance to restore Argentina’s lead with a 64th-minute penalty.
But, the Argentine superstar proved that even the best could miss and his effort was saved low down to the left by Iceland’s goalkeeper Hannes Halldorsson.
Given Messi’s almost superhuman abilities his penalty record in his career is quite surprising.
He has taken 103 and scored 79 and missed 24 which gives Argentine a 23.33% miss rate, which also equates to a miss once every four penalties.
Messi’s record going into the tournament been suspect recently too, as reported by the Metro, it was his fourth miss from his last seven attempts for club and country which is only a success rate of 57%.
4 – Lionel Messi has missed four of the last seven penalties that he has taken for Barcelona & Argentina combined (57%). Woe.#ARGISL#ARG#WorldCuppic.twitter.com/O0K8SlhMvw
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 16, 2018
Furthermore, the first penalty scored in the World Cup 2018 was by Ronaldo, and the first penalty missed was by Messi.
And Ronaldo fans couldn’t help but highlight this on social media to put more fuel in the long-standing Messi vs Ronaldo debate.
If Ronaldo had Messi’s penalty record but still kept taking them he’d get hammered for putting himself ahead of the team.
— anthony (@Anthony689908) June 16, 2018
They do deserve it. Some of us don’t want to do this but these people troll Ronaldo even when he’s exceptional. They can’t escape this banter.
Ronaldo broke all those records yesterday, Messi’s record today is first to miss a penalty in the 2018 World Cup. GOAT!
— Talib Kama (@AmadinOgbewe) June 16, 2018
So messi thought of a record to break after watching ronaldo’s heroics yesterday and it had to be FIRST TO MISS A PENALTY AT THE 2018 WC…. some people’s G-O-A-T pic.twitter.com/ULiniJd9IB
— HQ_feranmi (@HQ_feranmi) June 16, 2018
On Record, Ronaldo scored the #1st Penalty, Messi missed the #1st penalty in the 2018 FIFA world cup ???
— Beck Cohen (@beck_cohen) June 16, 2018
Why are people surprised Messi missed a penalty? His record is poor. Ronaldo has to be better at one thing I guess #penaldo ??
— Jamie Lister (@j_lister) June 16, 2018
After all the records Ronaldo broke yesterday, Messi’s record today is first to miss a penalty in the 2018 World Cup.
GOAT. pic.twitter.com/hsJ3bjSvOA
— Talib Kama (@AmadinOgbewe) June 16, 2018