Argentina captain Lionel Messi produced a historic performance on Tuesday, scoring a hat-trick as the reigning world champions opened their FIFA World Cup title defence with a commanding 3-0 victory over Algeria in their Group J opener.
The 38-year-old forward marked his record-breaking sixth World Cup appearance in style, becoming the tournament’s joint all-time leading scorer with 16 goals, equalling the record held by former Germany striker Miroslav Klose.
Messi, making his 200th international appearance for Argentina, also became the first player in history to feature in six FIFA World Cup tournaments. He celebrated the milestone with the first World Cup hat-trick of his illustrious career before a crowd of 69,045 at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.
The Argentine superstar opened the scoring in the 17th minute with a curling effort that moved him level with Gerd Müller, Kylian Mbappé and Ronaldo on the World Cup scoring charts. He added his second goal in the 60th minute after converting a rebound from Alexis Mac Allister’s shot, before completing his hat-trick with a low finish from the edge of the box in the 76th minute.
Messi received a standing ovation when he was substituted four minutes later as Argentina secured a comfortable victory to begin their quest for a second consecutive World Cup title.
Speaking after the match, Messi downplayed the significance of the individual milestone, saying it was an honour to be mentioned alongside some of football’s greatest goalscorers but describing the record as “just a statistic.”
Elsewhere, France began their campaign with a 3-1 victory over Senegal, inspired by a brace from Kylian Mbappé. The Real Madrid star took his World Cup tally to 14 goals and became France’s all-time leading scorer with 58 international goals.
In Group I, Norway marked their return to the World Cup for the first time since 1998 with a convincing 4-1 win over Iraq. Manchester City striker Erling Haaland scored twice to increase his international tally to 57 goals in just 51 appearances.
Austria also opened their campaign with a 3-1 victory over World Cup debutants Jordan in Group J. Romano Schmid gave Austria the lead before Ali Olwan scored Jordan’s first-ever World Cup goal. An own goal from Yazan Al-Arab and a late penalty from Marko Arnautović sealed the win for the Europeans.
