Messi to rescue, Messi magic puts Argentina back on World Cup track.

Messi to rescue, Messi magic puts Argentina back on World Cup track.

Lionel Messi led his 26-man Argentina squad in a protest on Tuesday against perceived mistreatment by the media, saying they were boycotting the press until further notice.

Source: www.thesun.co.uk

Messi had just inspired a 3-0 home win over Colombia scoring one goal and laying on the other two to put Argentina's World Cup qualifying campaign back on track.

"We have decided not to speak any more with the press," Messi announced in the post-match press conference room with his 25 team mates attending.

"We've received many accusations, a lot of lack of respect and we never said anything. We're very sorry it has to be like this but we have no option," the captain said.

"We know there are lots of you who are not in the game of not showing us respect but getting into one's personal life is very grave and that's why

A Lionel Messi masterclass, netting a brilliant free kick before laying on two more goals, put Argentina's World Cup qualifying campaign back on track with a resounding 3-0 win over Colombia on Tuesday.

The win lifted Messi's team, recovering from two successive defeats, into fifth place in the South American group with 19 points, one behind Ecuador and Chile, who beat Uruguay 3-1 with an Alexis Sanchez brace.

Brazil, away to Peru in Lima in a later match, top the table with 24 points while Uruguay are second with 23. Colombia dropped to sixth on 18 points.

The top four go through to the 2018 finals in Russia with the fifth, at present Argentina, qualifying for an intercontinental playoff for another berth.

"It's hard to analyse (the match) when you concede those kinds of goals and the more so when one team has a player like Messi," said Colombia coach Jose Pekerman.

"With the second goal, the match became practically impossible (for us). You try to get goals back but we couldn't and Messi made the difference."

Argentina took a ninth-minute lead when Messi curled his free kick over the wall and into the top left corner of David Ospina's net off the underside of the bar for his 57th Argentina goal.

Falcao came close for Colombia at the other end when he headed James Rodriguez's free kick just over Sergio Romero's bar after 18 minutes.

Instead, they languish in third and will spend next year playing catch-up.

The United States also put itself in a deep hole in qualifying with one of its worst performances in decades.

Taking advantage of defensive mistakes, Costa Rica routed the Americans 4-0 to drop the Americans to 0-2 for the first time in the final round of the North and Central American and Caribbean region.

Johan Venegas scored in the 43rd minute, Cristian Bolanos doubled the lead in the 69th and second-half substitute Joel Campbell beat beleaguered goalkeeper Brad Guzan in the 74th and 77th minutes in the worst margin of defeat in a qualifier since a 5-1 defeat at Mexico in 1980.