Messi donates historic shirt to young Austrlia player

After the match at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on December 3, Messi received the Best Player award, then discovered Devlin standing near. The Argentina captain's striker changed his shirt as promised.

This is a special gift for Devlin. In addition to the 1,000-game mark when wearing that shirt, Messi also scored the 789th goal of his career. And Devlin has yet to play the 2022 World Cup, when he, as a midfielder, sat on the bench from the beginning of the tournament until Australia was sent home by Messi's team.

After the "gift" part, Messi was also "picked up" by at least three Australian players in the tunnel to take souvenir photos.

After having a photo with Messi, striker Marco Tilio posted on Instagram and wrote: "I attended a special event and learned a lot, then met my childhood idol and great player in the world. I I feel proud of that. Thank you Australia for giving me such an opportunity."

In the 1-2 defeat against Argentina, the Australian team did not score any goals. All three goals came from the opponent, in which Messi opened the scoring in the 35th minute, Alvarez raised it to 2-0 in the 57th minute and returned 2-1 due to an own goal by Fernandez in the 77th minute.

In Melbourne, about 20,000 people entered the AAMI stadium to watch the two sides battle through screens whose size is considered "modest" by the public.

And Argentina fans are no less noisy when watching with Australian fans.

In the quarterfinals, Argentina will face the Netherlands at 2 am on December 10.