During the 2006 World Cup in Germany, Lionel Mess I played his first minute and even scored his first goal in the second game for the team led by José Néstor Pekerman. That day, Argentina beat Serbia and Montenegro 6-0 and he, at that time, a Barcelona player, scored the sixth goal. However, it was against the Netherlands, during the Netherlands, when the star made his debut as a starter.
Argentina had already won their first two games against the Ivory Coast and Serbia and Montenegro and, like the Netherlands, had already secured qualification for the round of 16.
For this reason, the coach decided to give the young promise from Rosario a chance from the start against the same country that will be the next rival in Qatar 2022
The eleven starters for that match were: Roberto Abbondanzieri; Roberto Ayala, Gabriel Milito, Leandro Cufre, Nicolas Burdisso; Esteban Cambiasso, Javier Mascherano, Juan Román Riquelme, Maximiliano Rodríguez; Carlos Tevez and Lionel Messi. La Pulga, who used number 19 in that World Cup, had an acceptable game and was replaced after 69 minutes by Julio Cruz.
That day in Frankfurt on June 21, 2006 had luxury witnesses. In the stands were nothing more and nothing less than Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff, symbols of both teams. In addition, like next Friday in the duel for the quarterfinals, Lionel Scaloni was also on the bench, but at that time he was doing it as a substitute with the number 13 on his back.
