Argentina 3 | 0 Algeria
Kansas City (USA), June 17: Lionel Messi registered his first World Cup hat trick while moving into a tie for first on the tournament’s career scoring list, sending defending champion Argentina to a dominant 3-0 victory over Algeria in its group-stage opener.
Messi scored his first goal in the opening minutes on Tuesday night on a nice feed from Inter Miami teammate Rodrigo De Paul, the second on a rebound early in the second half. Shortly after he got his third on a strike from the top of the penalty box, he subbed out to a standing ovation from a heavily pro-Argentina crowd.
The trio of goals gave him 16 for his career, putting him in a tie with Germany’s Miroslav Klose for the career record. They also allowed him to join Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo as the only players to have scored in five World Cups.
“The first matches at the World Cup are always tough,” Messi said after playing in the tournament for a record-setting sixth time, “and we’re seeing that nobody’s giving anything away.”
Well, almost nothing. Algeria made some crucial mistakes on the first two of Messi’s goals, which came 20 years to the day that he made his World Cup debut for Argentina in a match against Serbia and Montenegro – he scored in that one, too.
Messi’s brilliant hat trick helped Argentina get off to a much better start than its last World Cup. Four years ago, La Albiceleste were beaten by Saudi Arabia in their opening match in Qatar, only to rally from there to win their third world title.
Messi, who turns 39 next week, nearly had two other goals against Algeria, never once looking like the mild hamstring injury that worried fans in the run-up to the tournament was a problem. One found the back of the net but was called back because he was ever-so-slightly offside, and another strike in the second half just cleared the crossbar.
He was a pest on defence, too, helping Argentina lock down the overmatched Les Fennecs.
Algeria’s best chance came in the opening minutes, when Fares Chaibi’s would-be goal was taken away by a VAR review that showed he was offside. Messi scored moments later, and the rest of the night belonged to him and Argentina.
Argentina will continue its pursuit of back-to-back titles in Arlington, Texas, when it plays Austria on Monday and Jordan on June 27.
Algeria plays Jordan on Monday in Santa Clara, California, before facing Austria in its Group J finale on June 27 in Kansas City. (AP)
