Lionel Messi: Peter Drury's commentary to his World Cup final free-kick is timeless

Lionel Messi must wake up in the middle of the night thinking about the 2014 World Cup final.

While the Paris Saint-Germain star might have put to bed many of his demons by finally winning an international trophy with Copa America glory last summer, that night at the Maracana must continue to bug him.

Yes, conquering South America and adding the Finalissima trophy for good measure is no mean feat, but we can all agree that lifting the World Cup is the pinnacle for any professional footballer.

After all, there are some supporters who would argue that Messi can’t possibly be considered the greatest male player of all time until he gets his hands on that iconic golden trophy.

Lest we forget that fellow GOAT claimants such as Pele, Diego Maradona, Ronaldo Nazario, Franz Beckenbauer, Zinedine Zidane and more can all call themselves World Cup winners.

And what makes Messi’s case so painful is that he did everything right: playing a superb tournament that saw him win the Golden Ball as Argentina came within a nose hair of glory.

It wasn’t until Mario Gotze’s dramatic extra-time winner that the dream started to die in a game that brings back ‘what could have been?’ memories such as Gonzalo Higuain’s miss.

Even Messi himself had a couple of chances to conquer the globe for Argentina with many fans still reminiscing on the moment that his second-half shot in the penalty area flashed past Manuel Neuer’s far post.

However, far less remembered but just as important is the free-kick that Messi lined up after Argentina had actually gone 1-0 down in what represented a final chance to save the day.

It was infinitely harder to score than the earlier opportunity, but you just got the sense that if anyone could pull the rabbit out of the