Lionel Messi had the football world absolutely buzzing on Tuesday after his world-class performance in their highly-anticipated semifinal matchup against Luka Modric and Croatia. This was without a doubt one of the biggest matches in Messi's decorated career, and you just knew that he was going to step it up when the lights were the brightest.

Messi opened the scoring with a penalty in the 34th minute. He then played a key role in both of Julian Alvarez's goals, which resulted in a 3-0 win for Argentina. Alvarez's second goal came via a Leo Messi assist that was preceded by a blistering run from the 35-year-old — a play that will no doubt be remembered as one of the top sequences in the entire tournament.

After the game, Messi spoke to the press to express his absolute delight in the win. It's been a great run for Argentina thus far and the GOAT is just soaking it all up:

“It's very exciting to see all of this, the people, the family,” Messi said. “The entire World Cup was incredible, what we experienced and now we are going for the last match, which is what we wanted.”

When asked if he feels that this has been his best performance in the World Cup, Messi was quick to share the spotlight with his teammates:

“I don't know if it's my best World Cup or not,” he said. “I've been enjoying this a lot for a long time. We were confident that this group was going to pull it off. We know what we are and we ask the people to believe in us.”

This is Messi's fifth World Cup appearance and Tuesday's win has secured his second consecutive trip to the Final. Lionel Messi is well aware of the gravity of the situation but at this point, he just wants the fans to enjoy the moment:

“Argentina is, once again, in the World Cup final. Enjoy!” Messi said.