This summer’s World Cup was always going to be a tournament of big goodbyes.
By the last-32, we had already said farewell to the likes of Luka Modric and Manuel Neuer, two legends of the game who have continued to defy Father Time.
Neymar brought the curtain down on his World Cup career following Brazil’s 2-1 defeat against Norway in the last-16, before Monday night saw the last dance for Cristiano Ronaldo, who has ended his illustrious career without capturing football’s greatest prize.
This evening, when Argentina face Egypt, that air of finality will drift through the Atlanta Stadium too. Regardless of the result, one of Lionel Messi or Mohamed Salah will be heading home – perhaps, in Messi’s case, for the final time.
For Salah, reaching this stage has already made history. This is Egypt’s first World Cup last-16 tie in 92 years. They also recorded their first World Cup win against New Zealand in the group stage, before beating Australia on penalties in the last-32 to earn their first-ever World Cup knockout victory.
With what may have been his last kick on the World Cup stage, Salah remained as composed as ever, outwitting goalkeeper Mathew Ryan with a cheeky panenka penalty to help steer Egypt to victory.
Lionel Messi and Mohamed Salah go head-to-head tonight in the last 16 of the World Cup
Sofascore have prepared a head-to-head comparison between the two legendary players
Messi has already earned his crowning moment four years ago in Qatar at a tournament in which he scored seven goals in seven matches. This summer, he’s already equalled his goal tally, despite having only played four matches.
It’s undoubtedly the Argentine’s best World Cup yet. He’s averaging a goal every 46 minutes and has netted seven from just 15 shots on target. Argentina have scored 11 times in total this tournament, meaning Messi is responsible for 64 per cent of their goals.
Salah, meanwhile, scored two goals in as many matches from just two shots on target at the 2018 World Cup. This time around, Salah has scored once and set up two goals. That takes his total World Cup tally to five goal contributions – a drop in the ocean compared to this evening’s rival.
Messi had scored 20 goals and provided eight assists in 30 World Cup matches, spanning across six tournaments from 2006 to 2026. He has also created 20 big chances in that time and averaged 4.3 shots per game, compared to Salah’s one and 2.5 respectively.
Understandable though, considering Messi has played more than five times the amount of minutes Salah has. However, Salah does average more key passes per game (3.33 compared to Messi’s 2.83), highlighting his creativity going forward as well as his knack for finding the back of the net.
Across all international matches, the scales balance out. Messi, who has netted 124 goals in 203 appearances, finds the back of the net every 135 minutes on average. Salah isn’t far off, he averages a goal every 155 minutes, having scored 66 goals in 118 matches for Egypt.
The odds are well and truly against Salah, with Opta’s supercomputer giving Egypt only an 11.5 per cent chance of beating the reigning champions inside 90 minutes.
It’s a fair assessment, given Argentina are unbeaten in 10 World Cup matches, with their last defeat coming against Saudi Arabia in Qatar. Plus Lionel Scaloni’s side have won their last eight matches on the spin against African nations.
Messi’s World Cup record is far superior to Salah’s, though he has played many more games!
The reigning champions’ World Cup defence has remained intact so far, but they have shown that they aren’t infallible. Cape Verde took Argentina to extra-time in the last-16 and scored twice past Emiliano Martinez.
Argentina, however, boast one of the strongest defences at the tournament so far, conceding an xG of just 2.1. It will certainly take something special to breach that, but then again we know only too well Salah is capable of such magic. Only this time it would be at the expense of Messi’s World Cup career.
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