世界杯小组赛：梅西梅开二度刷新世界杯总进球纪录，卫冕冠军阿根廷二比零力克奥地利提前晋级淘汰赛

Argentina beat Austria 2-0, a match destined to be written forever into soccer history.

It's destined to be remembered by people not just because Argentina won the game, but more because the true protagonist of this match — Messi — created, with his own feet, a remarkable new historic record on the pitch.

Before reviewing this match, let's first get to know the two teams.

Argentina comes from South America, a universally acknowledged top power in world soccer, and at the same time, the defending champions of the last World Cup.

And in this star-studded team, there is also a legend in the truest sense: Messi.

Messi is universally regarded as one of the greatest players in soccer today, and even in the entire history of the game.

With delicate technique, a sharp mind, and goals in abundance, no matter which corner of the world he goes to, he has countless devotees and fans.

Their opponent for this match, Austria, comes from Europe — a tenacious team that plays quite seriously.

However, in fairness, in both the individual star power and the overall strength of the team, there's a fairly obvious gap between Austria and Argentina.

And for exactly this reason, before the match nearly everyone's eyes were focused on Messi alone: everyone urgently wanted to know whether, in this match, a no-longer-young Messi could still keep scoring.

As the match began, both sides on the pitch played fairly cautiously and carefully.

Austria's defending was done quite seriously; they pulled large numbers of players back into their own half, working hard to protect their goal.

So for a spell after kickoff, although Argentina firmly held the initiative on the pitch, for a time they couldn't quickly break things open.

However, a true superstar is always able to step up at the most crucial moment.

Around the end of the first half, Messi seized a fleeting chance and, unhurried and calm, scored a goal.

At that very moment, countless fans in the stands leapt up from their seats in excitement, chanting his name at the top of their voices.

For the many fans who had come specially to the ground, getting to see Messi score with their own eyes was, in itself, an enormous joy.

One to zero — Argentina took the lead, and the whole stadium, at the moment of Messi's goal, was utterly ignited and erupting.

After taking the lead, Argentina played with more composure and confidence, firmly controlling the tempo of the match.

Austria, of course, weren't willing to simply concede defeat, and they tried hard to mount a fightback, but Argentina's entire defensive line was equally solid.

And so the 1-0 score held all the way to the final stage of the match.

And in stoppage time, with the match about to end, Messi stepped up once more and scored another goal for Argentina.

Two to zero — this was already his second goal of the match.

A player scoring two goals in a row in the same match has a very vivid name in Chinese: "méi kāi èr dù" (a brace).

And Messi's brace not only completely sealed the win in this match, but also let him complete a historic feat fit to be inscribed in the annals.

Because, after scoring these two goals, Messi formally became the player with the most total goals in World Cup history.

That is to say, among all the players who have ever played at a World Cup, the World Cup goals Messi has scored are the most of all time.

This is a record of the highest value, and one extremely hard to break.

You should know that the World Cup is held only once every four years, so being able to score on the World Cup stage is itself an extremely difficult thing.

Many illustrious, great players play their entire careers without managing to leave even a few World Cup goals.

Yet Messi played several World Cups, and in almost every one, he had goals to his name, building up his tally bit by bit, slowly, just like this.

Now, he has finally raised this World Cup scoring record to an unprecedented new height.

And behind this lie more than a decade of unwavering effort, perseverance, and love for the game.

What's even more remarkable is that, at this very moment, Messi is in fact no longer young.

To still shine and decide matches at this age, on the highest stage of the World Cup — his greatness no longer needs any more words to describe.

After the match, fans around the world were almost all celebrating and cheering for Messi.

Some sincerely sighed that this was Messi's moment, a night worth remembering forever, and that perhaps years from now, when people bring up this World Cup, he will still be the first one they think of.

Many Chinese fans, too, stayed up late in front of their screens to watch this match through, just to witness this great historic moment with their own eyes.

On China's social media, the topic of Messi quickly heated up, with a great many people sharing the brilliant footage of his goals and expressing their love and admiration for him.

Of course, for the Argentina team as a whole, the significance of this victory was equally no small matter.

With this 2-0 win, Argentina locked up a precious qualifying spot early, advancing smoothly from the group stage to the knockout phase.

A so-called defending champion refers to a team that won the title last time and is still working to defend it this time.

As defending champions, Argentina, with such a fine victory, proved once again that they remain one of the strongest title contenders at this World Cup.

And for Austria, who lost the match, they really needn't be too downcast either.

What they had to face was the strongest team on the planet, and the greatest player in the history of soccer.

To be able to compete on the same pitch against such opponents is, in itself, a precious experience.

What's more, they never gave up their effort from start to finish, and that tenacious fight still deserves people's respect.

In fact, this is exactly the most captivating thing about the game of soccer: a truly great player can always step up at the most crucial moment, change the course of a match with a goal or two,

and write his own immortal history.

Alright, that's the whole story of the Argentina versus Austria match; see you next time.