There stood 38-year-old Lionel Messi by the penalty spot, poised for yet another flashbulb moment in a career already overflowing with them.

There stood 38-year-old Lionel Messi by the penalty spot, poised for yet another flashbulb moment in a career already overflowing with them. A goal from 12 yards would make him the World Cup’s all-time leading scorer outright, surging past Miroslav Klose’s 16. And then he missed the goal entirely.It was, by his own admission, a moment of fury. “I was very angry about the penalty because I missed it and I took it very, very badly,” Messi said afterwards. But 30 minutes later, he had rewritten the record books anyway - the way he always has: with a clinical left-footed...