Dallas: Lionel Messi produced another magical display and nailed a few records, scoring a brace to help defending champions Argentina beat Austria 2-0 in a Group J match and advance to the knock-out stages of the FIFA World Cup 2026 at the Dallas Stadium in Dallas on Monday.
Messi made it to the record books by scoring his 17th and 18th goals in World Cups, setting the record for most individual goals in the history of the tournament. Two days before his 39th birthday, the Argentine talisman brushed aside missing a penalty early in the first half, to give his team the lead in the 38th minute and then doubled it seconds before the ned of the match to seal a memorable victory for the defending champions.
With their second Group J win, Argentina secured their progress to the last 32. If Jordan fail to beat Algeria later in the day, they will be confirmed as group winners.
The day belonged to Messi as he scored his first goal of the day in the 38th minute, setting the record for most individual goals by any player in the tournament’s history. This was Messi’s 17th goal in the FIFA World Cup and also his fourth in the 2026 edition.
Messi not only broke the tournament’s scoring record, but he also joined Just Fontaine of France and Jairzinho of Brazil as the third man to score in six successive World Cup games. This is Messi’s fourth goal of this tournament, taking his tally to 17 at the World Cup. He then made it five goals for the 2026 edition towards the end of the match.
Messi improved on the record of 16 goals held by Miroslav Klose of Germany. The list is now led by Messi with 17 goals, followed by Klose at 16 and Ronaldo (Brazil) at 15 goals. Kylian Mbappe of France and Gerd Müller of Germany are next in the list with 14 goals.
He then extended his record by scoring an opportunistic goal in the fifth minute of added time (90+5) to make it 2-0 for Argentina.
Reigning tournament champions Argentina fought off some tough challenges from Austria before Messi led their fine comeback with a superb goal. He got possession of the ball and passed it to Thiago Almada. Almada sent a masterful pass back to Messi, who received the ball and launched a great shot to beat Austria’s Alexander Schlager. He could have set the record a few minutes earlier, but missed a penalty.
At half-time, Argentina were leading Austria 1-0 in the match played at the Dallas Stadium in Dallas.
Argentina came back strongly to impose an offensive style of play. They dominated play in the opening minutes but could not take the lead as Messi missed a penalty, which caused them to lose control of the proceedings.
Austria dominated the next few minutes of play and managed to take control of the game, pressing high and cutting off the opponent’s build-up. Playing aggressively, they kept the game even for the next 15 minutes. However, they were completely ineffective, as they could not translate their dominance into a goal.
Argentina then wrested back the initiative when Messi created a play in midfield. He combined well with Thiago Almada to create a good opportunity and then converted it to give Argentina a 1-0 lead and set the record for most individual goals scored by a player.
(IANS)
