And the kid of 38, almost 39, years old did it again. Thanks to another formidable performance by Lionel Messi, the Argentine National Team defeated Austria 2-0 in the second match of Group J and secured their qualification to the Round of 16 of the 2026 World Cup.
The match would start with an Albiceleste team having possession that would quickly find its first dangerous chance at 3 when Lautaro Martínez would receive an excellent through ball from Enzo Fernández and would be brought down in the area by Stefan Posch and Xaver Schlager. After an extensive VAR review, Egyptian referee Mahmoud Abouelregal would call a penalty and the one to take it would be Lionel Messi, who unfortunately sent his shot wide.
After this warning, the Austrian team would react and start to take more prominence and generate their own opportunities, although none would become dangerous. For their part, the team of Lionel Scaloni would withdraw more, but would not stop attacking. In one of their incursions forward, at 31 they would come close with a double chance: first a shot from Enzo Fernández neutralized by Alexander Schlager and then a shot from Messi, cleared by David Alaba.
A few minutes later, when it seemed that the match was going to halftime tied, Argentina would make it 1-0. At 38, after a great combination of passes, the ball would reach Facundo Medina, who from the left wing would cross it back (with an excellent layoff from Thiago Almada in the middle) to a Messi alone who would shoot straight at the goal to score his 17th goal in World Cups, thus becoming the all-time top scorer in the history of the competition.
