Lionel Messi became the World Cup’s joint-top all-time scorer with a hat-trick as reigning champions Argentina began their defence with a statement victory over Algeria on Wednesday at Kansas Stadium in the United States of America.
Making his 200th appearance for his country, Messi scored his first treble at a World Cup.
And it created a piece of history, as the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner took his World Cup finals goal tally to 16 – moving him level with Germany’s Miroslav Klose as the all-time leading scorer in the competition’s history.
The three-time world champions were made to work for victory at the Kansas City Stadium as they aim to become only the third nation to successfully defend the World Cup.
It was the first time Argentina had won their opening match at a World Cup as defending champions, having suffered defeats in 1982 and 1990.
That was down to the brilliance of Messi, who curled home a wonderful opener in the 17th minute.
The 38-year-old collected the ball from Inter Miami team-mate Rodrigo De Paul before bending a strike past Luca Zidane – the son of France legend Zinedine Zidane – on his 27th World Cup appearance.
His goal arrived 12 minutes after an earlier effort had been disallowed during a breathless start, with Algeria also having a strike ruled out three minutes later as the game burst into life right from the off.
But on a night when he became the first player to appear in six World Cups, Messi was lucky to escape punishment for reckless challenge on Algeria’s Aissa Mandi midway through the first half.
Argentina’s second came from close range on the hour mark when Messi pounced on a mistake from Zidane, before he sealed a 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.
Having made a winning start in Group J, Argentina next face matches against Austria and Jordan.
