Lionel Messi did something here that we had not seen from him before at this World Cup. Not the two goals, or the casual match-winning brilliance.
That was old news. It came at the end of the first half, just after he had scored from a free-kick, as he was being mobbed by happy team-mates, as the Argentina fans were chanting his name over and over.
As he emerged from the huddle came that rarest of sights: a huge, beaming smile. Finally, at his third World Cup, in his 10th World Cup match, Messi was enjoying himself.
It is a strange thing, pressure: it comes from many sources, but ultimately the main one is yourself. Nobody would have been more aware than Messi of his failure to reproduce his own stratospheric standards at a World Cup.
Now, as his fourth goal of the tournament sailed in as serenely as Argentina sailed into the last 16, it was if the weight of expectation had finally been lifted.
