Argentina fans begin to believe as Messi wills them into World Cup semis

LUSAIL, Qatar: Lionel Messi had to dig deep after his Argentina side blew a two-goal lead before beating Netherlands on penalties to keep his World Cup dream alive, making one goal and scoring another before setting the tone for the emotional shoot-out triumph.

Long after the vanquished Dutch had left the field, the Argentinian players danced in front of their dancing, flag-waving fans, all ignited by the belief that maybe Messi's time has come at long last.

The mercurial 35-year-old did all he could in the 90 minutes to set up a semi-final against Croatia, who beat Brazil on penalties earlier on Friday, but a late collective collapse almost saw him make an embarrassing World Cup exit.

Leading 2-0, it all went wrong for Argentina as journeyman striker Wout Weghorst pulled a goal back for the Dutch, and then added a cheeky, brilliantly worked second on the stroke of full time to make it 2-2 and drag Messi and his team into deep, deep waters.

After seeing a late shot deflected wide in extra time, Messi looked up to the heavens in exasperation, as if wondering how much longer he would have to carry a team that has done so little to make life easy for him in the five World Cups he has played in.

Aside from a solitary final appearance in 2014 where they lost 1-0 to Germany, Argentina have never made it past the quarter-finals in any of his other tournaments, an almost criminal waste of one of the greatest talents the game has ever seen.

Having earlier watched Neymar tearfully exit the Qatar World Cup without taking a penalty for Brazil, Messi took no chances in the shoot-out and stepped up first, setting the tone for what was to come.

With Neymar out and Ronaldo benched by Portugal, only France's Kylian Mbappe can rival Messi as the