After fist-pumping his way back to the halfway line and urging the Argentine contingent to maintain their delirium, Lionel Messi took a moment to himself.
And ahead of the Mexican restart, he stretched out his arms, looked upon beyond the stadium’s far-away rafters and muttered a few words. What they were and to whom they were directed will, no doubt, remain private but if Diego Maradona was looking down, he would surely have said thanks. Thanks for yet another moment that reminds the world why you are one of the, if not THE, greatest of all time.
The goal Messi was celebrating with his celestial gesture would not make into his top hundred - or maybe two hundred - in terms of magic and technical brilliance. It was an extremely decent, clever, medium-range strike that a truly world-class keeper just might have saved.
