Lionel Messi Did Not Have Fun At Spain's 6-1 Drubbing Of Argentina Today

Just a couple of months before June’s World Cup begins, a next-generation Spain squad incinerated a mostly full-strength Argentina in Madrid today, riding an Isco hat trick to a 6-1 laugher. It’s only a friendly, but still, it wasn’t good, and Argentina star Lionel Messi, missing the game with a hamstring injury, seemed to have a pretty shitty time watching the beatdown from a box above the pitch.

Unfortunately, these photos of sad Messi don’t come with timestamps, so we have to guess at what point they all came. But we can use context to help out here. For example, the photo above, in which Messi is displaying body language we’ll call “engaged dejection,” I think Spain just made it 3-1. If the game had ended with a bummed Messi simply using his arms for support, it would have still been a respectable defeat and a mostly polite scoreline, even if it came off a scorching Iago Aspas run.

This Messi looks grumpier:

Maybe because Thiago Alcántara hustled his way to a goal three minutes later:

Here, Messi looks engaged in thought:

Perhaps wondering to himself, “How did the goddamn goalie get an assist?”

This last one has the scorebug, so it’s cheating. But it would have been clear anyway that it came after the final goal, because it’s the saddest of them all.

That was Isco’s third goal, by the way, though it should mostly be credited to Argentina’s defense:

Cheer up, Leo. At least, with a supporting cast this bad, there’s no way all of Argentina can blame you for its World Cup failures again.