Lionel Messi led his national team, Argentina, the reigning champion, to a wide victory over the Algerian team with a score of three goals to none, in the match that took place today, Wednesday, at the Kansas City stadium, as part of the first round of the group stage of the 2026 World Cup.
Messi scored a historic hat-trick during this match, thus becoming the top scorer in World Cup history, sharing the record with German striker Miroslav Klose, and he became the first player to participate in the finals six times.
The match began at a fast pace, and in the early minutes of the first half, two goals were disallowed for offside, the first for Argentine Messi in the 8th minute, and the second for Algerian Farid Chaid in the 9th minute. Messi officially opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a powerful shot from outside the penalty area. In the second half, the Argentine star took advantage of the rebound from Algerian goalkeeper Luca Zidane to add the second goal in the 60th minute, and then he returned to complete his hat-trick in the 76th minute with a precise shot.
With this clean hat-trick against the Algerian team, Messi raised his tally to 16 goals in 27 matches, sitting at the top of the historical scorers in World Cup history alongside Klose, in the sixth tournament he has participated in after 2006, 2010, 2014, 2018, and 2022.
Following this result, Argentina, a three-time world champion, raised its score to three points at the top of group ten temporarily, before facing Austria and Jordan later.
