Messi, Argentina avoid a shocking upset in wild knockout stage match against Cape Verde

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On Friday, Argentina looked to continue its quest for back-to-back World Cup titles, and to do it, they had to get through one of the darlings of this year's tournament, Cape Verde.

The small island nation off the coast of West Africa came into the match as the No. 64-ranked team in the world, and they managed to hold Argentina — the No. 2 team behind France at the moment — scoreless for almost thirty minutes.

But in the 29th minute, Lionel Messi scored to give Argentina the lead.

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That was the 20th World Cup goal of his career, and it also made him the first player to score seven or more goals in multiple World Cups, having done it in Qatar as well.

It was also Messi's eighth-straight World Cup match with a goal.

Argentina's Lionel Messi scored in his eight-straight World Cup match and potted the 20th World Cup goal of his career. (Photo by Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images))

Well, typically when Argentina takes the lead, they don't cough it up, but early in the second half, Cape Verde's Deroy Duarte pulled off a stunner and tied the game at 1-1.

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While there was some late pressure from Argentina, that included an always-dangerous Messi free kick from just outside the box that Cape Verde managed to stop.

And with that, it was off to extra time.

Cape Verde celebrates after scoring one of their two tying goals against Argentina. (Photo by Pablo Morano/BSR Agency/Getty Images)