Lionel Messi produced a moment of sheer brilliance in injury time to rescue Argentina and put his stamp indelibly on this World Cup.
The Argentines had been frustrated at every turn by a brilliantly-organised rearguard from Iran and looked set for a shock goalless draw. But that is when the captain delivered for his country.
He received the ball about 22 yards out, dropped his shoulder to make that extra yard of space and curled a fabulous shot beyond the despairing reach of the goalkeeper and into the far corner.
Messi has often been criticised back home for not producing his Barcelona form in a blue-and-white shirt.
Here was the perfect response to that, as he scored his 40th, but by far his most important, international goal. As England saw the other night against Uruguay and Luis Suarez, world-class players can make the difference in an instant and Iran’s heroic defending came to nothing.
Yet, for 90 minutes the Iranians had performed magnificently for Carlos Queiroz. They even had a couple of chances that might have produced a greater result than the famous draw against Scotland in the 1978 World Cup.
Messi had scored a terrific goal to light up the Maracana in the win over Bosnia last Sunday, but his performance hadn’t quite convinced.
He was helped here by coach Alejandro Sabella’s decision to revert back to the 4-3-3 formation that served them well in qualification.
Gonzalo Higuain was in from the start alongside Sergio Aguero up front, allowing Argentina’s No. 10 a little bit more space to operate. However, the lack of a midfield playmaker forced him to drop deep to get on the ball. And his side struggled against a blanket defence. Their best early chance came with Aguero bringing a fine save out of Ali Haghighi. Messi himself stepped forward to take a free-kick, but his effort was over both the wall and bar.
Iran should have grabbed a shock half-time lead when Jalal Hosseini headed over from a corner by Ashkan Dejagah.
The minnows grew in belief and nearly grabbed a shock lead with Sergio Romero having to make a good save to keep out Reza Ghoochannejhad’s header.
There was then controversy when Pablo Zabaleta and Dejagah collided in the area, with the Iranian certain that he was brought down by the Manchester City defender.
Argentina were now fraught and it needed a desperate fingertip save from Romero to stop Dejagah’s flying header from looping over him into the net.
But just when it looked as if they had run out of time, Messi had other ideas.
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