Former Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny joked that he’ll probably get banned after a bet with Lionel Messi during Poland’s match against Argentina.

Wojciech Szczesny put in one of the goalkeeping performances of the World Cup so far on Wednesday night, as Poland scraped through to the last-16 of the tournament.

With their World Cup group looking incredibly tight ahead of the final round of matches, both Argentina and Poland went into their match believing they’d need a result to progress.

But after Argentina’s 2-0 win over Mexico in the previous game, they’d finally found their feet at the tournament, and put in a totally dominant display against Poland.

Led by captain Lionel Messi, Argentina had 25 shots on the night, 13 of which were on target.

Former Gunner Szczesny made nine saves, including one from the penalty spot, and despite losing the match 2-0, Poland progressed to the knockout stages on goal difference. All those saves ended up making the difference.

Speaking after the game, Szczesny told reporters of a bet he made with Messi before the spot-kick was given.

“We spoke before the penalty,” Szczesny revealed. “I told him I can bet him €100 that he (the referee) wasn’t going to give it. So I’ve lost a bet against Messi.

“I don’t know if that’s allowed at the World Cup, I’m probably going to get banned for it, I don’t care right now! And I’m not going to pay him either! He doesn’t care about €100, come on.”

https://twitter.com/tv2sport/status/1598082516186865664

Even if he was wrong about the referee’s decision, Szczesny ended up getting the last laugh in the penalty incident, making a fantastic save to keep out Messi’s spot-kick.

https://twitter.com/BBCSport/status/1598039896630956042

The save was Szczesny’s second penalty stop of the tournament, having also denied Salem Al-Dawsari of Saudi Arabia from the spot.

Poland will need him on top form again as they face France in their last-16 match on Sunday.