On a day when Neymar put four goals past Japan, his Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi scored two in Argentina's 7-0 thumping vs Hong Kong.
Argentina strolled to a 7-0 friendly win over Hong Kong on Tuesday,
with superstar Lionel Messi and Napoli striker Gonzalo Higuain both
netting a brace. (Four-star Neymar mesmerises Japan)
Coach
Gerardo Martino started with a second-string side that saw Barcelona's
Messi, Manchester United's Angel Di Maria and Sergio Aguero of
Manchester City all on the bench.
Messi came on with half an hour
of the match remaining. By then the score was already 4-0 but soon the
little wizard had made it five, playing a neat one-two before dinking
the ball over goalkeeper Yapp Hung-fai.
He was then instrumental
in Argentina's sixth, pulling the ball back from the byline to give
Nicolas Gaitan of Benfica the easiest of tap-ins from inside the
six-yard box.
It was Gaitan's second goal of the match. The first
came just before half-time when he cut in from the right and smashed the
ball in with his left foot.
Just a minute earlier Higuain had scored his first, heading down a cross from the left.
The forward got his brace and Argentina's fourth with a simple pass into a open goal less than ten minutes into the second half.
Sevilla's Ever Banega had opened for Argentina on 19 minutes, pouncing on some woeful Hong Kong defending.
Yapp
fumbled a weak effort which landed at the feet of Lee Chi-ho who
scuffed a clearance straight to Banega, for the midfielder to drill the
ball home.
With five minutes to go Messi scored his second and
Argentina's seventh, taking the ball down beautifully with his left foot
before going past three Hong Kong defenders and rifling it low into the
corner.
Other stars who didn't start for Argentina included
Sergio Romero, Pablo Zabaleta, Javier Mascherano, Martin Demichelis and
Erik Lamela.
Manchester City's Zabaleta entered the fray on 60
minutes with Di Maria and Mascherano coming on ten minutes later -- all
three coming through the match unscathed.
