The former Sydney winger won just his fifth cap to be pitted against one of the finest players in the world. It was possible the Argentine 20 year old could have humiliated the Aussie.

But instead Carney showed he can stake a claim to being world class himself.

Carney played a blinder in an attacking left back role for Australia, constantly pushing the game forward down the wing but always tracking back to defend as required.

Occasionally Messi got away from him – but he’s got away from much more expensive players than Carney, who was bought by Sheffield United from Sydney for just $120,000.

But he also foiled the lethal striker in front of goal, putting in one last ditch tackle that saved an almost certain goal with Messi bearing down in the box.

And in their final confrontation, it was Carney’s quick feet that left Messi stranded on his backside as Super Dave ran off with the ball for one last attack on the Argentinean goal.

"You've always got to be switched on with him. He might slow the game right down and all of a sudden he'll do something brilliant," he said after the game.

“Going up against Messi, he’s obviously one of the best in the world and it was a hard job for me. You know what he can do. It was definitely a hard game tonight.

But he added: "I feel like I'm adapting quite well and if you can do reasonably OK against the best - not great but reasonably OK - I can only look forward.”

"Hopefully there's more to come. For the last two months the games just keep getting bigger for me and I’m happy about that. There’s nothing better for a football than playing in big games like this.

“Hopefully it will go well for me at my club and then we’ve got the World Cup qualifiers. I thought we played very well tonight and we can look ahead.”