To say Sunil Chhetri and Lionel Messi in the same breath is more than a little odd, is what the talismanic Indian striker himself felt once or twice. Yesterday, he went past the Argentine superstar in the list of goals scored by an active footballer on the international arena, leading, as he has so many times done, his country to its first win in the AFC Asian Cup since 1964.

He was modesty personified after going past (in terms of goals scored at least) one of modern day's greatest footballers. "Records don't matter, it doesn't matter who scores the goals. Whoever scores the jubilation is the same. I'm glad we got all three points," Chhetri said after the sensational 4-1 result against Thailand, the team that featured three J-League players in its ranks. Chhetri, 34, scored a world-class goal - his second of the game - but he preferred to talk everything else but his strike, which became a talking point for Indian football fans. "I can think about my goals some ten years later," Chhetri said.