Messi strike helps ignite Argentina's World Cup campaign

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Messi was once again Argentina's saviour, grabbing the breakthrough goal at Lusail Stadium.

Poland's 2-0 victory over Saudi Arabia earlier on the matchday left Argentina needing to avoid defeat against Mexico to ensure it would not join host nation Qatar in exiting the competition after just two games.

Argentina put its shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia behind it thanks to Messi's long-range opener on 64 minutes and Fernandez's even more impressive effort in the 87th.

Lionel Scaloni's men join the Saudis on three points and are one point behind Group C leader Poland, which it will face to wrap up its group campaign, while Mexico is bottom on one point.

Argentina made five changes on the back of its opening loss, three of those in defence, and it struggled to find any rhythm in the first half.

Mexico went closest to opening the scoring before the interval through an Alexis Vega free-kick that called Emiliano Martinez into action.

The quality only marginally improved in the second half before out of nowhere an unmarked Messi controlled Angel Di Maria's pass and fired a low shot past Guillermo Ochoa from 25 yards.

That strike took Messi level with fellow great Diego Maradona on eight World Cup goals for Argentina.

The result was sealed late courtesy of a brilliant goal from substitute Fernandez.

With three minutes left, the Benfica midfielder received a pass from Messi from a short corner, worked his way into the box and then curled his shot past Ochoa into the top corner.