Group F

Argentina 1
Messi 90;
Iran 0

Argentina's Lionel Messi, left, celebrates after scoring in the 90th minute of the Group F World Cup football match between Argentina and Iran at the Mineirao Stadium in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, last night. Argentina won 1-0. Photo: Jon Super/AP

Lionel Messi saved Argentina’s blushes with a brilliant stoppage-time winner against unheralded Iran at the World Cup yesterday to send the South Americans into the last 16.

Argentina’s fabled “Fab Four” strike force had appeared heading for a blank despite dominating most of the possession to the frustration of their massed ranks of fans who came expecting a goalfest at Belo Horizonte’s Mineirao stadium.

But four-times world player of the year Messi curled the ball in during added time to send them wild with only his third ever World Cup goal.

The result gives Argentina six points from two games and takes them into the knockout stage. But they will need more guile and precision against better opponents.

Iran, on just one point, will at least take heart from a fantastic performance against one of the favourites to lift the trophy.

Constantly crowded out by two and sometimes three Iranians, Messi had until then been unable to pull the strings.

The Argentine captain put two free-kicks wide in either half, and saw a shot go off target after a trademark run early in the second.

In a succession of wasted Argentine chances, Gonzalo Higuain was quickly shut down by goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi in a one-on-one, Angel Di Maria shot over the bar and Sergio Aguero had a curling shot well saved.

Marcos Rojo and Ezequiel Garay put headers off target.

With their increasingly hopeful supporters heavily outnumbered but cheering “Ole, ole, Iran”, Asia’s highest-ranked team defended en masse but also enjoyed some forays forward that could have caused a sensational result.

Sensing an upset might be possible at 0-0, Iran were bolder in the second half.

They could have easily been awarded a penalty as Pablo Zabaleta mis-timed his challenge on Ashkan Dejagah, with referee Milorad Mazic unmoved as the Fulham winger protested aggressively.

Lone striker Reza Ghoochannejhad broke free in the 53rd minute but shot straight at Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Romero before Dejagah saw a strong header tipped over.

Then Ghoochannejhad got behind the Argentine defence in the 86th minute but saw his shot again saved by the well-positioned Romero.

With the misfiring Aguero and Higuain pulled off late in the second half, replacements Ezequiel Lavezzi and Rodrigo Palacio were unable to provide the missing spark – until Messi did.

Argentina: 1-Sergio Romero; 4-Pablo Zabaleta; 2-Ezequiel Garay; 16-Marcos Rojo; 17-Federico Fernandez; 5-Fernando Gago; 7-Angel Di Maria (90 6-Lucas Biglia); 14-Javier Mascherano; 9-Gonzalo Higuain (77 18-Rodrigo Palacio); 10-Lionel Messi; 20-Sergio Aguero (77 22-Ezequiel Lavezzi).

Iran: 12-Alireza Haghighi; 15-Pejman Montazeri; 4-Jalal Hosseini; 5-Amir Sadeghi; 23-Mehrdad Poo-ladi; 3-Ehsan Hajsafi (88 8-Reza Haghighi); 6-Javad Nekounam; 14-Andranik Timotian; 21-Ashkan De-jagah (84 9-Ali Reza Jahanbakhsh); 16-Reza; 7-Masoud Shojaei (76 2-Khosro Heydari).

Referee: M. Mazic (Serbia).