Lionel Messi and World Cup champions Argentina welcome by HUGE crowd in Buenos Aires - IN PICS

Images of packed Buenos Aires celebrating Argentina’s FIFA World Cup 2022 win after a gap of 36 years, the last one coming back in 1986, have been flooding social media for the last few days.

Lionel Messi was once again their talisman and architect of the World Cup win, scoring twice in the final and walking away with the ‘Golden Boot’ award. Now Argentina are getting ready for a victory parade through the streets of Buenos Aires after finally landing in the city on Tuesday (December 20).

Thousands of fans lined up in the middle of the night to try to get a glimpse of the Argentina soccer team that won one of the greatest World Cup finals of all time ahead what is scheduled to be a day of celebrations in Buenos Aires.

Members of the team, led by captain Lionel Messi, were all smiles as they descended from the plane in Ezeiza, right outside Argentina’s capital, shortly before 3 am on Tuesday onto a red carpet that had been rolled out for the squad.

Messi was the first player from the plane carrying the World Cup, flanked by coach Lionel Scaloni, who put his arm around the captain as they walked past a sign that read, “Thank you, champions.” The players were welcomed by rock band La Mosca singing ‘Muchachos’, a song that was written by a fan to the tune of an old song by the band and became a popular unofficial anthem for Argentine fans at the World Cup in Qatar.