BUENOS AIRES: Argentina showed once again how reliant they are on Lionel Messi as the Barcelona forward scored a hat-trick in their 4-0 World Cup warm-up win over Haiti on Tuesday. With Javier Mascherano making his 143rd appearance to put him one ahead of Javier Zanetti as Argentina's most capped player, Messi got the opener from the penalty spot after 17 minutes. "More than the result we were able to say goodbye to our fans and show that we are going to Russia with hope," Messi said. Aguero was fit again after a knee injury but began the game on the bench, with Gonzalo Higuain and Angel Di Maria starting up front alongside Messi. Argentina now fly to Barcelona to prepare for World Cup matches against Iceland on June 16, Croatia on June 21 and Nigeria on June 26.

Source: New Strait Times May 30, 2018 02:36 UTC