Argentina 3-0 Algeria: Messi 17, 60, 76
A first World Cup hat-trick, equalling the record for most goals scored in the tournament, that’s Lionel Messi for you as defending champions Argentina began their campaign in style.
Before this game, Germany’s Miroslav Klose held the record for most World Cup goals (16). Messi’s three goals matched that, and coincidentally also placed him among one of the few players to have scored a hat-trick at a World Cup, a feat began by Klose himself.
Argentina arrived at this tournament mindful of the lessons of Qatar four years earlier, when an opening defeat to Saudi Arabia briefly threatened their campaign. There was no repeat of that anxiety here as Lionel Scaloni’s side controlled the contest and were rarely troubled by an Algeria team returning to the World Cup after a 12-year absence.
Messi almost opened the scoring inside five minutes when he was released behind the defence and finished confidently beyond Algeria’s Luca Zidane, only for the flag to go up. Algeria suffered a similar frustration moments later when Fares Chaibi thought he had scored but it was cancelled after a review.
Argentina had reprieve and shortly after, Messi’s first goal arrived. Algeria were too relaxed out of possession and were punished for it. Rodrigo De Paul took the ball from defence and threaded a pass through the eye of a needle, taking out four Algerian players in the middle of the park to find Messi, who charged towards the penalty area before sending a shot towards the top corner. It was tricky but not quite accurate enough and Zidane should have done much better, but the goalkeeper could only palm the ball into the net.
𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐥𝐝 𝐂𝐮𝐩 𝐀𝐥𝐥-𝐓𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐓𝐨𝐩 𝐒𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐫 🐐🏆 pic.twitter.com/zRPYa25zQP
— Selección Argentina in English (@AFASeleccionEN) June 17, 2026
Algeria were not completely bereft of ideas. Chaibi threatened on the counterattack and Ibrahim Maza found occasional pockets of space, but clear opportunities were scarce against an organised Argentine back line led by Cristian Romero and Lisandro Martinez.
The South Americans continued to enjoy play and Lautaro Martinez was denied by Zidane before Thiago Almada and Alexis Mac Allister both went close. Then Mac Allister tested Zidane again from distance and the goalkeeper handled the ball poorly yet again, only managing to push it in front of him, where Messi moved quickly to steer the rebound into the bottom right corner, fooling Zidane who anticipated a shot the other way.
Messi was on the hat-trick and continued to threaten. He was denied in a one-on-one by Zidane and later failed to get a penalty after going down under pressure in the area, but he soon managed to find his third. Nicolas Gonzalez was unpressured and he fed Messi just outside the box. Clearing space, the 39-year-old threaded a low finish into the bottom left corner to leave Zidane fuming. History made.
