In an effort to raise money for poor Panamanians, Lionel Messi lead a team of stars against an equally talented Rest of the World XI in a high-profile exhibition match in Panama on Wednesday night.
Before 35,000 spectators who braved pouring rain to see their heros play, a terrible mistake at the back by Brazilia centre-half Lucio gifted the Rest of the World a simple seventh minute opener as Kevin Kuranyi teed up Fernando Morientes for the opener.
It didn’t take long for Lionel Messi’s XI to pull level as Lucio amended his earlier mistake in defence by racing through the opposition defence and slotting in a 13th minute leveller.
Just after the half hour mark the Leo Messi show began. From Martin Palermo’s defence-splitting though-ball Messi was able to round the keeper to walk the ball into the net, and on the stroke of half-time it was 3-1 as Messi played a delightful one-two with Brazil’s legendary full-back Cafu in the box before ‘The Flea’ bagged his brace.
Lionel Messi’s XI opened up a 4-1 lead early in the second half when, after more good work from Cafu down the right hand side, Argentine striker Franco Zuculini swept in his team’s fourth. But, just as it looked like the Rest of the World XI would be blown out of the match they hit back through an excellent hat-trick for local Club Leon forward Blas Perez.
Perez steered in his first goal in the 77th minute, and less than sixty seconds later it was 4-3 as Perez curled in a beauty inside the far left-hand post. The Rest of the World’s flow was punctured by futher strikes from Leo Messi and Franco Zuculini, while Blas Perez had the final say of the match when he completed his hat-trick with a stunning overhead-volley.
Highlights from the match can be seen below:
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