Lionel Messi almost single-handedly kept Argentina's World Cup dream alive with his performance against Mexico in Qatar.

After Argentina slumped to a shock loss to Saudi Arabia in their opening clash, they knew nothing less than a win would do when they took on Mexico in their second game.

When a cagey first half ended without a goal, Messi stepped up, took the game by the scruff of the neck and did what he does best.

Having found a small pocket of space on the edge of the box, Messi rifled one into the bottom corner from range to send Argentina on their way in inspired fashion.

He then popped up with the assist later on to kill off the game and break Mexican hearts.

Canelo Alvares fires 'threat' at Lionel Messi

One such heart that was particularly wounded was that of boxing superstar Saul 'Canelo' Alvarez who slammed Messi and co. after footage emerged of their celebrations following the game.

Canelo felt that the PSG man had shamelessly disrespected Mexico as a nation when he spotted a Mexican shirt on the floor at Messi's feet.

Canelo took to Twitter to issue a thinly veiled threat and air his disgust for what he had seen in the celebratory footage. In a series of tweets, Canelo wrote:

“Did you guys see Messi cleaning the floor with our jersey and flag.

“He better pray to God that I don’t find him. Just like I respect Argentina, he has to respect Mexico!

“I’m not talking about the country as a whole, just about the bulls**t that Messi did.”

Sergio Aguero rides to Lionel Messi's defence

Now, Messi's great friend and comrade, Sergio Aguero has leapt to his defence, slating Canelo's take on the incident.

"Mr. Canelo, don’t look for excuses or problems, surely you don’t know about soccer and what happens in a locker room," Aguero said, per the Daily Mail.

"The shirts are always on the floor after the games are over due to sweat and then if you see well, he makes the movement to remove the boot and accidentally hits it."

It looks as though it was a an entirely harmless action and that Messi wasn't intentionally disrespecting the Mexican colours.

From Messi's perspective though, it might be best to avoid sharing a room with Canelo for a while until the former world champion has been given the opportunity to calm down.