At 39, Lionel Messi is still the best player at this World Cup, and he is still rewriting the competition’s history books. Age really is just a number to the little magician.
Six goals in three group games — a hat-trick, then a brace, then a free kick — have carried Argentina to a perfect group stage and left him out in front of the Golden Boot race.
Against Jordan in Arlington on Saturday, he was not even in the starting XI. Brought on midway through the second half, he still found time to break a World Cup record that had stood for 56 years.
Lionel Messi does it again as Argentina top the group with a 100 per cent record. What is the one thing that could stop them from winning back-to-back World Cups?
Meanwhile. Algeria and Austria played out a six-goal thriller and both teams go through with four points
Lionel Messi makes it seven World Cup games in a row
Messi opened the tournament with a hat-trick in the 3-0 win over Algeria, drawing level with Miroslav Klose’s all-time World Cup goals record. He passed Klose a week later with both goals in a 2-0 defeat of Austria.
The third installment came against Jordan. After winning a free kick on the edge of the box, Messi curled a low effort through the defenders and into the corner — his sixth goal of the group stage and his 19th in World Cup history, extending his own record.
It’s now seven World Cup games in a row in which Messi has scored, a streak running back to Argentina’s title-winning charge in 2022.
Only Just Fontaine, back in 1958, and Brazil’s Jairzinho, in 1970, had ever scored in six straight. 56 years on, Messi has gone one better.
The question is how long the run can last. On this form, and with Cape Verde up next, few would bet against it stretching to eight.
Now that the group stage is complete, who is your favourite to win the World Cup and why? 🤔
Argentina’s route to the World Cup final
Argentina’s reward for topping Group J is a Round of 32 tie against Cape Verde in Miami on Friday, July 3rd.
The islanders are the smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup knockouts, and they have done it on their debut — a fairytale, but a hard one to keep alive against the holders.
Beyond that, the path opens up. The winners of Australia against Egypt await in the Round of 16, with Switzerland, Algeria, Colombia or Ghana the likely options in the quarter-finals.
A semifinal, should they reach one, could pit them against Brazil, England, Mexico, Japan, Ecuador or DR Congo.
On paper, it is a very manageable draw, and a Messi-led Argentina look as dangerous as any side left in the tournament. The defending champions are well placed to reach the final on July 19th — and their 39-year-old captain shows no sign of slowing down before then.
READ MORE:
Vozinha said playing against Lionel Messi is his dream; it will come true in the World Cup’s RO32
Lionel Messi’s star power highlighted by remarkable Round of 32 tickets stat
Lionel Scaloni couldn’t hide Lionel Messi’s World Cup game status from iconic 91-year-old journalist
Receive exclusive football transfer news and updates twice a week to your mailbox
