Messi and Argentina light up the Abu Dhabi night in 5-0 win over UAE

ABU DHABI: The player the crowd had come to see hardly needed emphasizing. And Lionel Messi — with more than a little help from Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Angel Di Maria — duly delivered. He lit up the Abu Dhabi night with some scintillating football, especially during the first half, as Argentina defeated the UAE 5-0 in their final friendly before heading to Qatar for the World Cup.

Usually, the stands at Mohammed bin Zayed Stadium are a sea of white. But not on Wednesday night. An eclectic crowd, including many UAE fans, filled the stadium to capacity in a rare display of color and noise.

It was all for one man: Messi. Over the next hour and half, he would not disappoint. Argentina established their clear superiority from the start and barely relented for the remainder of a memorable first half.

On 17 minutes, Messi, finding a criminal amount of space down the right flank, squared the ball for Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez to tap past Khalid Eisa in the UAE goal. Messi was starting to direct operations. Minutes later, he almost found Di Maria with delicate chip that was cleared for corner.

The respite did not last long. On 26 minutes, Marcos Acuna found Di Maria with a raking cross and the Paris Saint-Germain man scored with a stunning left-foot volley in what was the highlight of the match so far. Meanwhile, the decibel level rose every time Messi touched the ball — and the noise might have blown the roof off the stadium had a trademark run and cut inside ended in a goal instead of a blocked shot.