Lionel Messi's latest excursion with Argentina hasn't exactly gone to plan.Having just gotten his Paris Saint-Germain endeavour underway with an appearance off the bench at Reims, the six-time Ballon d'Or winner was back on the road again for the international break.Argentina had fixtures lined up for their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign and by no fault of his own, Messi has endured a pretty tough time during the opening two games out of three.

A troubling international break

While, yes, Argentina might have gotten underway with a 3-1 win in Venezuela, it was a game that was marred by a horrendous tackle on Messi that saw Adrian Martinez awarded a red card.

Thankfully, the PSG star was able to emerge from the tackle relatively unscathed, but that didn't stop the controversy just a few days later when Argentina's game in Brazil was suspended.

As you might seen on just about every back page around the world this week, Brazilian health officials took the remarkable step of invading the pitch in order to stop the game from continuing.

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Brazil vs Argentina

Only time will tell quite what the resolution will be, but the issue surrounded whether or not Emiliano Martinez, Emiliano Buendia, Giovani Lo Celso and Cristian Romero should have been in quarantine.

However, long before Messi found himself debating with health officials on the Arena Corinthians pitch in Sao Paolo, he was understandably focused on the game going ahead as usual.

And despite all the chaos to have come out of the game in the proceedings hours and days, footage of Messi preparing for the fixture has still popped its head about the debate and diplomacy.

Messi's free-kick in training

'Why?' I hear you ask. Well, that's because Messi just happened to be honing his free-kick skills in the same week that footage of him perfecting set-pieces in Argentina training emerged.

Those of you who watched the original clip will know just how lethal Messi can be in training, but he arguably went one better with his latest dress rehearsal, so be sure to check it out down below:

Messi couldn't have placed it in any higher if he walked up to the goal-line and used his hands.

Redefining top corner

While the original angle makes it look as though Messi had 'only' found the top corner, the replays quickly reveal that the 34-year-old defined the term 'postage stamp' by placing it to perfection.

Besides, there's not a goalkeeper in the world who could have gotten to that effort regardless of how much power Messi placed on the strike and whether or not they correctly predicted which side.

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So, sure, Messi might not have had the chance to put his training into practice against Brazil on Sunday, but make no mistake that one of his opponents will be punished sooner rather than later.