Good thing Hannes Halldorsson is no stranger to the editing studio. Iceland’s full-time goalkeeper and part-time film-maker saw his hours spent with remote control in hand pay off spectacularly as he provided the show-stopping moment of Iceland’s World Cup debut.

Halldorsson anticipated Lionel Messi’s second-half penalty to perfection and denied Argentina a victory they didn’t deserve. Instead, Euro 2016’s break-out stars served up a sequel at the Spartak Stadium with a 1-1 draw.

It was a moment that played out just like Halldorsson had drawn it up on the storyboard.

Lionel Messi saw his second-half spot kick saved against Iceland by Hannes Halldorsson

Lionel Messi admitted he is hurting after his missed penalty cost Argentina a World Cup win

‘I did some homework,’ said the 34-year-old. ‘I looked at a lot of penalties from Messi and I also looked at how I have been behaving in the last penalties. So I tried to get into their minds and imagine what they would be thinking about me. I had a good feeling that he would go this way.’

Argentina’s skipper, shut down brilliantly by Iceland for almost the entirety of an absorbing contest, reached for some cinematic terminology himself in the wake of a draw that felt like a defeat for Jorge Sampaoli’s men, who face Group D’s early leaders Croatia next.

‘It would have changed the script,’ Messi said of his fourth penalty miss in the last seven spot-kicks he has taken for club and country. ‘Obviously it hurts me to have missed. They would have opened a little more and we could have found more spaces. We have the bitterness of not being able to take the three points we deserved.’

Halldorsson bristled at suggestions that Iceland had been too enthusiastic about their historic point. When an Argentinian reporter asked why they’d ‘celebrated it like a win’, he responded: ‘Are you Cristiano Ronaldo’s uncle?’

Halldorsson says that his mind games spooked the five-time World Player of the Year

In France two summers ago, Ronaldo had similarly accused Iceland of celebrating their tournament-opening draw against Portugal with too much vigour. That result transpired to be the spark for a startling run to the quarter-finals.

Next up for Heimir Hallgrimsson’s side are Nigeria on Friday. ‘Just wait and see when we win a game, that will be a celebration,’ said the manager. ‘This is a milestone for this team. We played defence brilliantly. There was nothing in their game that surprised us.’

That final point was a damning indictment of Sampaoli’s side, who had produced Sergio Aguero’s superb opener and not a lot else in 90 minutes. Their approach rarely seemed to vary from a policy of give it to Messi and hope.

‘To evaluate and characterise Messi’s work is difficult because it was an uncomfortable match for him,’ said Sampaoli. ‘I know that Leo is very committed for us to move forward.’