Argentina beat Australia 2-0 in a friendly at Beijing's Workers' Stadium in China on Thursday, with Lionel Messi scoring his fastest goal to break the ice.
2023 Friendlies
2-0
Match Report
Argentina beat Australia 2-0 in a friendly at Beijing's Workers' Stadium in China on Thursday, with Lionel Messi scoring his fastest goal to break the ice.
Substitute German Pezzella scored the other goal midway through the second half, as Messi's side won the International Football Invitational Memorial Prize, a strange motorised trophy.
Back in December, these two sides met in the World Cup group stage, with Argentina winning 2-1 and Messi scoring first after 35 minutes. He was much quicker in Beijing, netting after 79 seconds.
Fans immediately got their money's worth when Argentina won the ball in Australia's half in the second minute and Enzo Fernandez found Messi, who sidestepped two defenders before beating the keeper Mat Ryan with a curling shot from outside the box.
Messi's previous record was the 127 seconds it took him to find the net for Barcelona against Chelsea in the Champions League in 2018.
Argentina held most of the possession, and had five shots on target to Australia's solitary one. The Socceroos created little, with Mitch Duke having their best opportunity.
But despite the dominance of Messi's side, a resilient Australian defence was on hand to stop the South American World Cup winners from seizing a huge advantage.
They doubled their lead in the second half when Rodrigo De Paul floated in an enticing cross into the box and Pezzella - who had come on for Nicolas Otamendi at the half-time break - found space between two defenders to fire home a free header.
The friendly was the first major international event China has hosted since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and a sea of blue-and-white greeted the teams as they stepped out onto the pitch.
An overwhelming majority of the 68,000 capacity crowd were sporting Argentina jerseys.
Before the match, Australia coach Graham Arnold joked: 'I can't see any yellow shirts anywhere.
'I just really hope Lionel Messi gets a little percentage of the shirt sales because I've never seen so many Argentine number 10 shirts in my life!'
Messi was playing his first match since confirming his move to American side Inter Miami last week.
He has now scored in seven successive Argentina matches, and the country's talisman has shown no signs of slowing down ahead of his 36th birthday next week.
The Socceroos wore black armbands to honour 1974 World Cup coach Rale Rasic, who died earlier this month at the age of 87.
The world champions will take on Indonesia in Jakarta on Monday as they continue their Asian tour, while Australia's attentions turn to their friendly against England in October.
Match Events
0' The match is about to start!
2' GOAL! Argentina 1-0 Australia (Messi)
5' CHANCE! Mac Allister's shot over the bar
9' CLOSE! Messi's shot hits the net
28' CLOSE! Duke's shot saved by Martinez
37' MISS! Messi's shot over the bar
47' Yellow Card! Nathaniel Atkinson booked
49' Ryan makes brilliant double-save
53' CLOSE! Messi's header saved
68' GOAL! Argentina 2-0 Australia (Pezzella)
71' CLOSE! Alvarez's shot denied by Ryan
79' Messi makes a great escape and sends a pass
Line-ups
Argentina XI: Messi, Di Maria, Otamendi, E. Martinez, Acuna, De Paul, Nahuel Molina, Romero, N. Gonzalez, Mac Allister, Enzo Fernández
Subs: Tagliafico, Gerónimo Rulli, Paredes, Pezzella, Ocampos, Walter Benítez, G.Simeone, G. Rodriguez, Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Facundo Medina, Balerdi, Thiago Almada, Julián Álvarez, Alejandro Garnacho
Australia XI: M.Leckie, Ryan, Mitchell Duke, J. MacLaren, Souttar, Kye Rowles, Riley McGree, Aiden O'Neill, Keanu Baccus, Nathaniel Atkinson, Jordan Bos
Subs: Ajdin Hrustic, Brandon Borrello, T. Glover, Denis Genreau, Ryan Strain, Connor Metcalfe, Cammy Devlin, Joel King, Joe Gauci, Gianni Stensness, Alex Robertson, Alessandro Circati