The Argentine national team aims to seal an almost perfect qualifying campaign.
This is not poker news. Or, at least, not directly. But we are referring to Lionel Messi
This time, the excuse is poker.
For those unfamiliar with the term, poker in football means scoring four goals in the same match, as if it were one of the lethal combinations. The same with cards as with the round ball.
And Messi knows quite a bit about that.
On Saturday, just two days before announcing his retirement from the National Team, the Argentine scored a poker again: he scored four goals for Inter Miami in the 7-1 win over CF Montreal, also providing an assist.
It was his first poker in the MLS in the United States and the first since February 2020, when he scored four against Eibar with Barcelona in La Liga.
Messi, Present at the Tables.
With that match, Messi reached seven matches in which he scored exactly four goals.
But the statistic is even more impressive if you add the matches in which he scored five: there are nine matches in his entire career with four or more goals.
All of Lionel Messi’s pokers
The first time Messi scored four goals in a match was on April 6, 2010, in an unforgettable Champions League night. Barcelona defeated Arsenal 4-1 and all four goals were from the Argentine.
Then came an extraordinary streak during his golden era at Barcelona.
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2012 was the year of the pokers. On February 19 he scored four against Valencia in the 5-1 La Liga match. Less than a month later, against Bayer Leverkusen, he went even further: he scored five goals in the 7-1 Champions League match. It was one of the most impressive performances of his career.
On May 5 of that same year he scored four again, this time against Espanyol. In 2013 he repeated the feat against Osasuna, while in 2017 and 2020 he did it again against the same opponent: Eibar.
And the last one came this Saturday with Inter Miami against Montréal.
Therefore, Messi scored seven pokers and two five-goal matches. In total, nine matches in which he scored four or more goals.
He also did it with the National Team
Of those nine matches, only one was with the Argentine jersey. It was on June 5, 2022, when the National Team thrashed Estonia 5-0 in a friendly. Messi scored all five goals.
And now, after 21 years, 207 matches and 125 goals with the Albiceleste, that jersey will no longer have him on the field.
This Monday Messi officially announced his retirement from the Argentina National Team. “I emptied myself, I have nothing left to give,” wrote the captain, who leaves behind a stage that included the 2022 Qatar World Cup, two Copa Americas, and the Finalissima.
At CodigoPoker, then, we take a small license to say goodbye to him.
It was not a poker of cards. It was four goals. The bracelets Messi would have if he had dedicated himself to cards…
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