ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—Lionel Messi played the entire game in Argentina’s final World Cup warmup and scored in a 5–0 rout of the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday as the pre-tournament favorites stretched their unbeaten run to 36 games.
Messi scored his team’s fourth goal right before the break, having also set up Julián Álvarez to open the scoring in the 17th minute. Angel di Maria scored twice in between.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni made four changes at halftime but opted against resting his star player, leaving Messi on for the full 90 minutes.
Messi has now scored 10 goals in his last five appearances for Argentina and took his overall tally to 91 goals….