Messi's assist, Martinez's brilliant goal lead Argentina to victory over Peru in final match of 2024 | WATCH VIDEO

Argentina defeated Peru 1-0 in their final match of 2024 Tuesday as Lionel Messi produced an assist and Lautaro Martinez scored the only goal of the match at the Alberto José Armando Stadium in Buenos Aires, Argentina. After a goalless first half at home, Argentina striker Lautaro Martinez scored in the 55th minute, capitalizing on a Messi cross to score the winner.

It was an exquisite goal, doing justice to a brilliant assist from Messi. The star Argentina player was crowded by the defenders at the top of the box on the right side, but as he so often doesn’t, Messi squeezed out an aerial pass that was behind Martinez. But the striker showed brilliant technique to score the winning goal as he stepped back and raised his left leg to fire the ball past the goalkeeper and into the top-right corner.

LAUTARO MARTÍNEZ, QUÉ ESCÁNDALO. 🤯🇦🇷pic.twitter.com/29UU3VGMsk

— Sudanalytics (@sudanalytics_) November 20, 2024

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With this assist, Messi equaled US Men’s National Team legend Landon Donovan’s record for the most international assists in men’s football history, with both players tallying 58.

Messi’s Argentina finish 2024 on top of World Cup qualifiers table

Martinez, who play for Inter Milan in Italy, has now scored 32 goals for Argentina and is currently placed joint-fifth with the legendary Diego Maradona in the list for the country’s all-time highest goal scorer.

The Peru match was also Argentina’s last match of 2024 and they will now be back in action four months from now with a clash against rivals Uruguay on 20 March 2025. This was also Argentina’s eighth victory in the South American World Cup Qualifiers and Messi’s team is currently in the lead of the CONMEBOL standings with 25 points, five more than second-placed Uruguay who played out a 1-1 draw against Brazil on Tuesday.

Peru are last in the 10-team table with seven points after 12 games.

The top six teams from the South American World Cup Qualifiers will automatically qualify for the FIFA World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.