Lionel Messi: Twitter erupts with birthday messages for Barcelona talisman

Barcelona and Argentina captain Lionel Messi celebrates his 32nd birthday today and fans on Twitter were quick to wish the mercurial 'La Pulga' and sing his praises.

The Albiceleste captain capped off his birthday with a man-of-the-match display against Qatar as Argentina managed to defeat Asian champions Qatar, 2-0, to advance to the quarterfinals of the ongoing Copa America.

The magisterial Barcelona captain has shown no signs of age catching up to him, enjoying a fabulous individual season with the Catalan club, having scored a sensational 51 goals across all club competitions. In his first season as the Blaugrana captain, Messi lead Barcelona to their 8th La Liga title in the last 11 seasons.

Despite their dominant performances in the La Liga, Barcelona faltered in the Champions League, getting sensationally eliminated by eventual champions Liverpool in the semi-finals. To add insult to injury, the Catalans were embarrassingly defeated in the Copa del Rey by minnows Valencia.

Messi was far ahead of the pack in terms of individual goalscoring, ending the season as the UEFA Champions League Top Scorer, a record-equalling 6th Pichichi title winner as well as the winner of an unprecedented 6th European Golden Boot.

Messi hopes to end his international title drought with Argentina as the Albiceleste vies for continental glory in the 2019 Copa America. Messi had famously lost three major finals with his national side - losing the 2014 FIFA World Cup final to Germany and the 2015 Copa America as well as the 2016 Copa Centenario final - both times to Chile.

Messi and company managed to beat Qatar today 2-0, thanks to goals from Lautaro Martinez and Sergio Aguero, despite a sub-par performance overall. The Albiceleste are slated to face Venezuela in the quarterfinal and their hopes will be closely linked to how Messi performs in the crunch fixture.