MESSI HITS 50 FOR ARGENTINA

IS 6 GOALS BEHIND RECORD-HOLDER BATISTUTA

CORDOBA: Lionel Messi scored his 50th international goal as Argentina defeated Bolivia 2-0 to advance their 2018 World Cup qualification campaign on Tuesday.

Barcelona superstar Messi emphatically netted a 30th-minute penalty at the Estadio Mario Kempes in Cordoba as Argentina wrapped up their third consecutive qualifying victory.

Messi’s spot-kick followed defender Gabriel Mercado putting Argentina ahead after 20 minutes with his second goal in as many games.The victory cements Argentina’s place in the automatic qualification berths of South America’s round-robin competition with 11 points from six games.

Messi’s penalty makes him only the second player in Argentinian history to reach a half century of goals for the two-time World Cup winners. The 28-year-old striker is now closing in on legendary scorer Gabriel Batistuta’s record of 56 goals set between 1991 and 2002.

Messi now also needs only one more goal to reach 500 goals for club and country — raising the prospect that he could achieve that milestone with Barcelona this weekend when the Spanish giants take on Real Madrid in the Clasico.

Messi, meanwhile, was satisfied with yet another Argentina win, which suggests their troubled start to qualifying — which began with a shock 2-0 home defeat to Ecuador — is firmly in the rear view mirror. “Beating Bolivia and Chile is what we wanted,” said Messi, referring to last week’s hard-fought win over the Chileans in Santiago. “We’ve come from a low position in the standings to a high one but there is still a long way to go,” Messi added.

ENGLAND HIT BY DISPUTED GOAL LONDON: England came crashing down to earth with a frustrating 2-1 loss to an inexperienced Netherlands side at Wembley on Tuesday. Second-half goals from Dutch forward Vincent Janssen and substitute Luciano Narsingh cancelled out a Jamie Vardy strike in the first half, sapping the optimism around Roy Hodgson’s side ahead of this June’s European Championship finals.