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England left-back Nico O’Reilly is relishing a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to face Lionel Messi in Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final against Argentina.
Thomas Tuchel secured their place in the final with a 2-1 win over Norway on Saturday and now faces last year’s world champions, who beat Switzerland 3-1 in Atlanta.
It will be Messi’s first appearance against England and, at the age of 39, it could be his last. Manchester City defender O’Reilly has never met at club level.
“I can’t wait,” O’Reilly, who will have to defend Messi one-on-one if he starts at left-back, told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. He’s coming to the end of his career. For me personally, he’s the best player to ever touch a football field. And yes, I can’t wait for the challenge.”
Messi became the all-time top scorer in World Cup history with a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Algeria, beating Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 since 2014.
The Argentinian captain has since scored 5 more goals – eight in total to tie France’s Kylian Mbappe for joint first place in the Golden Boot race and take his World Cup tally to 21.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner is Argentina’s main threat, but England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford has warned not to overlook the other talents in Lionel Scaloni’s squad.
“He’s scored a lot of goals and contributed a lot in his career,” Pickford told the media at England’s training base in Kansas on Monday.
“We all know how good Messi is, but we also know how good Argentina is. We can’t just rely on Messi (stopping). We have to focus on their other strengths and weaknesses that we can exploit.”
The semi-final winner will meet either France or Spain – Tuesday (20:00 BST) – in the World Cup final at New York’s New Jersey Stadium on Sunday 19 July (20:00 BST).
