1. Maradona had a famous God goal that helped them to beat England in 86. If Messi had such against Germany he would have won it. By using your criteria you want to make the claim that the entire legacy of Messi was in the hands of Palacio and Higuain, one few missed chances?
2. Portugal does have great players. In 2004 they hosted an Euro and had Figo, Ronaldo, Deco, Rui Costa and the entire Porto, Chealsea sides that won the Champions League in the same year. They lost to Greece .. twise. Now they still have players like Silva who was top 3 in voting for player of the Year in England. Also Ronaldo has ZERO goals in elimination games at World Cups - how is he a leader and Messi not? What team Messi has around him - they have like 5 stars in Messi, Dibala, Higuain, Aguero, Martinez, Ikardi all of whom play at the same positions!! I dont know if you play Fifa but there are ratings for each player and in Argentina, behind the attacking line there isnt a single player with more than 82-83 some of which are in the 70's. For comparison - regular stars are 85+, superstars are 88+
3. Messi has been the best player for Barcelona during their biggest highs and lowest low s... like now, with disfunctional team, coach and board and they still win titles and reach SF's in CL. If they didnt lose against Liverpool, they win the CL ... with a pretty "normal" team compared to the ones in 2011 or 2015