Argentina to the Round of 16: the National Team defeated Austria 2-0 with a Messi who shone again

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.

In the second half, the team led by Ralf Ragnick would come out determined to equalize and at 54 they would almost achieve it: after a foul by Cuti Romero on Konrad Laimer near the left corner of the area, Marcel Sabitzer would take the resulting free kick directly at the goal, although Dibu Martínez would manage to save it.

A little later, the Albiceleste coach would decide to make some substitutions to navigate the final stretch of the match: Nicolás Otamendi for Romero (who was injured) and almost ten minutes later Julián Álvarez and Nico González for Lautaro Martínez and Almada respectively.

As time passed, and with more substitutions on both teams, the match would enter a tense calm that seemed like it would end without further incidents; however, the GOAT would have something more to add. At 94, the Rosario star would counterattack down the right wing and pass it to Julián Álvarez, who would not be able to get past goalkeeper Schlager, however, the resulting rebound would fall to the substitute Leandro Paredes who would leave it for a 10 who, with suspense, but above all with effort, would make it 2-0 final.

After this victory, the Argentine National Team, with their qualification already secured, will seek to achieve an ideal score in the last match against Jordan, next Saturday, June 27 at 23:00 in the same stadium where they played today, AT&T Stadium in Arlington. For their part, Austria will try to finish second against Algeria on the same day and at the same time at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City.