Lionel Messi starts World Cup 2026 with a record: Argentina defeat Algeria

The Argentina national team began the defense of their title at the 2026 World Cup with a confident victory. In the match held at the stadium in Kansas City, the defending champions triumphed 3-0 over the Algeria national team. The 38-year-old Lionel Messi, who became the hero of the match, scored three goals, recording another historic result. This is reported by Goal.com news reports.

The opening minutes of the game were quite tense for both teams. While a goal scored following a pass from Lautaro Martinez was initially disallowed for offside, shortly after, Algeria's Farès Chaïbi found the net past Emiliano Martinez. However, after a VAR intervention, it was determined that the Algerian player was also offside, and the score remained unchanged.

Messi's night of records

Lionel Messi took center stage after the 15th minute. Messi placed the ball into the top corner from a delivery by his Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul. This was the Argentine legend's first goal in his fifth World Cup. Notably, this event occurred exactly 20 years after his debut goal in the World Cups.

With the hat-trick in this match, Lionel Messi has caught up with the legendary Miroslav Klose in terms of goals scored in World Cup history. Both players now have 16 goals each. Only the former German striker remains slightly ahead as he achieved this in fewer matches. Additionally, this goal went down as the 911th goal of Messi's career (across club and national team levels).

Argentina did not ease the pressure in the second half. Although a shot by Alexis Mac Allister was saved by goalkeeper Luca Zidane, Messi was the first to reach the rebound and made the score 2-0. Shortly after, the forward converted a pass from Nicolas Gonzalez to complete his first-ever World Cup hat-trick.

Although the Algeria national team put up a decent fight in terms of ball possession during the game, they lacked precision in attack. The African representatives took seven shots toward the Argentine goal, but none were on target. According to Goal.com, this victory significantly increases Argentina's chances of advancing from the group stage.

This match is distinguished not only by its result but also by several statistical indicators:

• Lionel Messi rose to 2nd place on the list of the all-time top scorers in World Cup history;
• Rodrigo De Paul and Messi became the fifth pair of MLS representatives to provide a goal-scoring assist to each other at a World Cup;
• Lionel Messi scored the 911th goal of his career specifically in the opening match of WC-2026.