Messi sealed his first World Cup treble in the 76th minute after arrowing home a thunderous strike from the edge of Algeria’s area.
By Kehinde Okeowo
Argentina began their 2026 FIFA World Cup campaign with an emphatic 3-0 win over Algeria in an encounter played at the Kansas City Stadium on Wednesday.
Making his 200th appearance for his country, Messi scored his first-ever hat-trick at the global tournament.
Argentina started strongly, with their captain finding the net in the early minutes; however, this goal was promptly ruled out for offside.
Algeria responded by scoring at the opposite end, but their effort was also disallowed for offside by the officials.
However, Messi broke the deadlock in the 17th minute after curling home a wonderful opener for the reigning champions.
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The 38-year-old collected the ball from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul before bending a strike past Luca Zidane – the son of France legend Zinedine Zidane.
La Albiceleste doubled their advantage on the hour mark after Messi pounced on a mistake from Zidane.
He then sealed his first World Cup treble in the 76th minute when he arrowed home a thunderous strike from the edge of the area after taking the ball from Nicolas Gonzalez.
With the hat-trick, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner became the competition’s joint-top all-time scorer, as he took his World Cup finals goal tally to 16 – moving him level with Germany’s Miroslav Klose.
He also joined Ronaldo as the only players to score in five different editions of the FIFA World Cup.
Meanwhile, having made a winning start in Group J, Argentina next face matches against Austria and Jordan.
