Lionel Messi played the complete game in Argentina's final World Cup warmup and scored in a 5-0 defeat of the United Arab Emirates as the pre-tournament favourites extended their unconquered reign to 36 games. Messi fired his team's fourth goal just before the break, and also set up Julian Alvarez to kick off the scoring in the 17th minute. Angel di Maria shot two goals in between. Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni had inculcated four changes at halftime but chose to stay against resting his star player, leaving Messi to play for the complete 90 minutes.
Messi has now chalked up 10 goals in his last five appearances for Argentina and fired up his overall tally to 91 goals. Joaqun Correa shot the fifth goal on the hour mark to finish the tally.