World Cup 2022: Lionel Messi makes 1000th career appearance in Argentina vs Australia

Lionel Messi will make his 1,000th career appearance as Argentina take on Australia in the last 16 of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Saturday night.

The seven-time Ballon d'Or winner is in the starting XI and captains the Albiceleste for the 100th time as they look to win the World Cup for the first time since 1986.

Messi is playing in his fifth World Cup and has eight goals in those tournaments, including two this time.

Now aged 35, this is likely to be his last chance to win the biggest international competition and Argentina were unbeaten in 36 games ahead of Qatar 2022.

That run ended with a shock 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia in their opening game, but back-to-back 2-0 wins over Mexico and Poland put Lionel Scaloni's side through to the last 16 as group winners.

Messi has made 831 appearances in professional club football: 778 at Barcelona and 53 at Paris Saint-Germain.

And for Argentina, this will be his 169th game for the senior side, taking him to four figures overall for club and country.

His goal record, incidentally, is extraodinary: 672 for Barça, 23 for PSG and 93 for Argentina. So far. But he is not finished yet...