Lionel Messi farewell match live – updates and analysis from Argentina v Benin

Messi, like any other megastar, has his haters and believers. I can’t say I fall into either side, but I find myself a bit sad watching the early scenes at Estadio Monumental.

I’ve covered him in person dozens of times at this point, both with Argentina at this summer’s World Cup and over the entirety of his club career at Inter Miami. I can’t say it ever gets old – his magic is so predictable at times but never ceases to amaze. As I told a friend the other day – watching Messi is like watching a comedian tell the same joke over and over again, and you still laugh every time. Let’s see what he has in store for us tonight.

I could populate the entirety of this pre-match coverage with milestones and statistics from Messi’s illustrious career – his international career alone is a statistician’s dream, especially in the past two World Cup cycles, which saw him solidify his status as an immortal.

Our own Ryan Benson unpacks the statistical absurdity of it all, arguing that Messi has at this point “completed football.” It’s hard to disagree:

For now, though, it’s time for Argentina to celebrate what they have achieved with Messi because there is no guarantee it will ever be as good as this again. Argentina had already won the lottery once before with Maradona; it’ll surely be a while before they strike gold a third time. Luckily, Messi provided them with memories to last a lifetime.

More at the link below.

If you’re watching tonight’s game in the United States you’re likely tuned into Vix, a Miami-based streaming service that operates in the US, South America and Spain. It’s probably unfair to call it an odd fit – the service regularly broadcasts matches from a host of competitions across North and South America but still – you’d think the final international appearance of the world’s best-ever footballer would find a wider audience elsewhere.

Hi folks, Pablo Iglesias Maurer here, settled in and ready for Lionel Messi’s swan song as Argentina welcome 93rd-ranked Benin to El Monumental for an international friendly.

First things first – if you’re wondering why Argentina is playing a team like Benin, you likely haven’t been paying much attention to the types of friendlies the Albiceleste typically schedule. It’s far from their first encounter with a bottom-rung opponent; the average FIFA global ranking of their friendly opponents over the past several years is 85, at the moment, having faced other minnows like Burkina Faso and Mauritania.

This dynamic offers little in the way of competition but offers the Argentine Football Association a huge amount of control in terms of logistics and financial terms. Tonight, it may lead to all of us seeing Messi score a dozen goals or more. Who knows.

Messi’s international career falls into two distinct halves. There was the first decade when there was a sense that he didn’t quite fit, was somehow insufficiently Argentinian, didn’t care for his country. That was always absurd and can be recognised now as a manifestation of the Argentinian public’s frustration at their trophy drought despite the presence in their forward line of one of the best three to play the game.

Then Messi retired, distraught after a missing a penalty in the shootout against Chile in the Copa América final in 2016. Suddenly, Argentina, rather than just lashing out at their biggest star, was forced to confront what it would mean to live without him. The prospect was so appalling it provoked a mass campaign to encourage Messi to reverse his decision.

Since then he has been loved and, despite a shambolic World Cup in 2018, has delivered with two Copas América, a World Cup and another World Cup final. His career was dogged by the accusation that he never matched Diego Maradona’s achievements in a national shirt; he ended up having won more.

Read more from Jonathan Wilson:

Hello and welcome to our liveblog of a sure-to-be emotional occasion in Buenos Aires. Pablo will be along shortly.