Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar: Who has scored the most goals vs top 10 nations?

Lionel Messi was up to his usual tricks in Argentina’s World Cup warm-up match against Honduras.

In the early hours of Saturday morning UK time, the Paris Saint-Germain superstar scored twice in a 3-0 win for his country.

Messi’s first was a cooly-taken penalty and the second was a moment of pure genius. The 35-year-old magician chipped Honduras goalkeeper Luis Lopez from around 30 yards out and he couldn’t have executed the finish any better.

Read more – Messi scores outrageous chip during incredible Argentina performance

Messi has now bagged 88 goals for Argentina, which makes him the fourth-highest scorer in the history of international football.

Only Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, 117 goals), Ali Daei (Iran, 109 goals) and Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia, 89 goals) sit ahead of him.

Messi’s record on international duty is quite something and there’s a key department in which he’s outperformed Ronaldo as well.

No, we’re not talking about assists, although he is superior in that regard too. The Argentine has recorded 51 of them, while his eternal rival’s tally stands at 42.

Instead, we’re talking about Messi’s prolificacy against the 10 nations ranked highest by FIFA.

No player in the 21st century has scored more goals against those countries, which include Argentina, Portugal, England, Brazil, Spain, Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy and Uruguay.

The folks over at PopFoot have worked out all the numbers and it’s Messi who sits atop the tree.

Let’s run through the 12 players with the most goals versus FIFA’s top 10 since the turn of the millenium…

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12. Karim Benzema (France) – 7 goals

11. Arjen Robben (Netherlands) – 8 goals

=9. Luis Suarez (Uruguay) – 9 goals

=9. Antoine Griezmann (France) – 9