Messi hat-trick as Argentina beat Algeria at the World Cup

In the 76th minute a boy in the stands at Kansas City pulled off a shirt with the name Messi on the back and held it above his head, just as the man with the same surname curled the ball under the bar for the third time that evening. The stadium rose. The player who carried the weight of never lifting the World Cup for twelve years, and then finally did in 2022, was now doing something nobody had managed before him.

Lionel Messi played the kind of match you remember for a long time. All three of Argentina’s goals carried his signature. He opened the scoring in the 17th minute, then broke down the Algerian defence twice more after the break, in the 60th and the 76th. His first hat-trick at a World Cup, after everything he had given across five previous tournaments.

Argentina looked calm, a side that knows what it carries on its shoulders and is not afraid of it. Algeria tried, even thinking they had equalised through Fares Chaibi in the 9th minute, only for the goal to be ruled out. Messi himself had a goal disallowed for offside in the 8th. The referee had a busy night, but the result never left room for doubt.

How far does this number go?

Sixteen World Cup goals. That is now Messi’s tally, level with Miroslav Klose, the German who held the figure for decades as something close to untouchable. Equalling that record is no small thing. Klose gathered his goals across four World Cups, patiently, one at a time, and for a long time it seemed nobody would get close enough to genuinely threaten it.

Messi reached it in a way that suits him. Not forced, not with fanfare, but with a hat-trick in a game Argentina were controlling anyway. Above all, this is his sixth World Cup, which makes him the first footballer in history to appear at six of them. Add the 200th cap for the national team, and you have numbers that do not come together by chance, but through a whole career devoted to one shirt.

What makes this hat-trick special is not the figure itself, but the moment. Defending champions, first round, the pressure to show their level straight away. Many teams tense up in that situation. Argentina played loose, and their captain settled the match before Algeria could find their feet.

What comes next for Argentina?

A comfortable opening win is worth far more than the table suggests. It buys space, it calms nerves, and it lets the manager rotate later in the group while saving legs for the stage when matches get harder. Argentina did exactly what is expected of a favourite, without unnecessary risk and without conceding.

After the match Messi looked like a man who knows the work is only starting. An opening-round hat-trick is a big deal, but the World Cup is not won in the first round. Two more group games lie ahead, then the knockout rounds where everything starts again. The next match will show whether this was simply a good evening or the signal of form that runs all the way to the end.

For now, the defending champions have begun exactly as they hoped. And the question hanging over the whole tournament is this: if Messi scores a hat-trick and breaks all-time records in the first round, where is his ceiling at this World Cup?