Lionel Messi’s brilliant performance helped Argentina secure a place in the knockout stages of the 2026 World Cup by defeating Austria 2-0 at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The Argentine captain was the hero of the team’s victory by scoring a brace despite missing a penalty in the match.
Argentina started the match playing aggressive football. In the fourth minute, the referee consulted VAR to see if Lautaro Martinez had been fouled inside the box. After watching the replay, Argentina were awarded a penalty.
Messi surprised everyone by taking a spot kick in the ninth minute. His shot went wide of the right post, adding another World Cup penalty miss to his career.
However, the Argentine captain was not discouraged by the penalty miss. Instead, he increased his attack. In the 19th minute, one of his shots was brilliantly saved by Austrian goalkeeper Alexander Schlager.
Austria also put pressure on Argentina’s defense several times with counterattacks, but failed to score.
Finally, in the 38th minute, Argentina got the desired goal. Facundo Medina passed the ball to Messi from Thiago Almada. He curled the ball into the net with a great first touch from the edge of the box. Goalkeeper Schlager had nothing to do.
With this goal, Messi increased his tally of goals in World Cup history to 17. As a result, he surpassed German legend Miroslav Klose (16 goals) to become the highest scorer in the World Cup of all time.
Argentina went into the break leading 1-0 in the first half.
The match was relatively slow in the second half, but Argentina maintained control of the ball. Although Austria tried to equalize, Argentina’s defense was quite strong.
As the match drew to a close, Messi struck again. In the fifth minute of added time, he broke through the Austrian defence with a brilliant solo effort to score his second and his team’s second goal. His dazzling strike secured Argentina’s victory and qualification for the knockout stages.
Messi scored a pair of goals despite missing a penalty, giving a man of the match performance. Under his leadership, the reigning world champions took another step forward in their title campaign with a series of strong performances.
Match result
Argentina 2-0 Austria
Goalscorer
Lionel Messi (38′, 90+5′)