He’s living in Cristiano Ronaldo’s shadow.
Whilst Ronaldo has been carrying the Portugal team at the World Cup, Lionel Messi has been one of the most disappointing players of the tournament so far.
The Real Madrid man is certainly winning the battle of the two goats, with Argentina’s talisman struggling to impress in Russia.
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Reuters The clash with Croatia was a headache of a game for Messi[/caption]
Messi was so anonymous in Argentina’s penultimate group match against Croatia that he barely touched the ball in the first-half.
The Barcelona man had just 20 touches in the first half, only Sergio Aguero, who had nine touches, was involved less.
Willy Caballero even had more touches than Messi, as he touched the ball 22 times- Messi having fewer touches than a goalkeeper. Madness.
Getty Images - Getty The Barca man struggled up against the likes of Luka Modric[/caption]
The performance was a disappointing one from Argentina, who were blown away 3-0 by Croatia.
Messi and the rest of his team-mates struggled in the match, including Caballero who made a huge mistake for the first goal.
Reuters Messi got a stern telling off from the referee after committing a foul on his Barcelona team-mate Ivan Rakitic[/caption]
It took the Argentina Captain 64 minutes to register his one and only effort on goal against Croatia.
Messi finished the match with just 47 touches and only passed the ball 23 times.
Ronaldo currently sits top of the goal-scoring charts at the World Cup, whereas Messi is yet to register his first.
It has now been 675 minutes since Messi last scored a World Cup goal.
Getty - Contributor At least one Messi will get his hands on the World Cup[/caption]
Argentina have now gone four consecutive World Cup games without picking up a win.
Jorge Sampaoli’s side are on the brink of elimination after the defeat to Croatia and their fate is no longer in their own hands.
At 30-years-old, this could well be the last World Cup that we see Messi feature in.
Ronaldo must be licking his lips.
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