Lionel Messi scored all three goals as Argentina began the defence of their title with a 3-0 win over Algeria. It was his first World Cup hat-trick.
Lionel Messi scored all three goals as Argentina began the defence of their title with a 3-0 win over Algeria. It was his first World Cup hat-trick.
Messi got going early. The 38-year-old opened the scoring in the 17th minute, curling a long-range shot past Luca Zidane into the top corner.
Zinedine Zidane's son did his best to keep Algeria in the game, turning away efforts from Lautaro Martínez and Alexis Mac Allister. But he was beaten again on the hour, spilling a Mac Allister shot for Messi to tap in the rebound. The captain made it three on 76 minutes, picking the ball up outside the box and bending a low finish into the far corner.
Messi was filmed wiping away tears after his first goal. He insisted the emotion had nothing to do with the match.
"Why did I cry? It was something completely unrelated to football," Messi said. "I went through some difficult days, but I'm grateful to the entire delegation and my team-mates because they were always by my side, giving me a lot of strength to help me get through it."
Algeria coach Vladimir Petković offered no excuses. "Class is permanent, because we're not talking about any old player here, we're talking about a footballer who has won the Ballon d'Or seven or eight times in his career," he said. Petković also pointed to the numbers: "Argentina had 10 shots today, and seven of those shots came from Messi."
The hat-trick lifted Messi to 16 World Cup goals, level with Klose at the top of the all-time list. He moved clear of Brazil's Ronaldo (15) and past Gerd Müller and Kylian Mbappé, both on 14. Mbappé had reached that mark with two goals against Senegal hours earlier.
The night carried several other firsts. It was Messi's 200th appearance for Argentina, and he became the first player to feature at six World Cups, exactly 20 years after his tournament debut, a 6-0 win over Serbia and Montenegro in 2006. He is the second player, after Cristiano Ronaldo, to score at five different World Cups.
Messi could have been sent off in the first half. He raked his studs down the right calf of Algeria captain Aïssa Mandi. Referee Szymon Marciniak awarded a free-kick but showed no card, and VAR declined to intervene. Some pundits think he deserved a red card. A dismissal would have ruled Messi out of the next group game.
Argentina continue Group J against Austria on 22 June before closing the stage against Jordan. Messi needs one more goal to stand alone as the World Cup's record scorer.
