{"id":753867,"date":"2026-06-22T23:38:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:38:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753867\/"},"modified":"2026-06-22T23:38:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-22T23:38:12","slug":"lionel-messi-scores-brace-as-argentina-beat-austria-2-0-at-world-cup-2026-world-cup-2026-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/753867\/","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi scores brace as Argentina beat Austria 2\u20130 at World Cup 2026 | World Cup 2026 News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"World<\/a><\/p>\n

Messi scores twice to become all-time leading scorer in men\u2019s World Cup history as Argentina reach knockout rounds.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 22 Jun 202622 Jun 2026<\/p>\n

Lionel Messi became the leading scorer in World Cup history as the captain struck twice to give Argentina a 2-0 win over Austria<\/a> and send the champions into the last 32.<\/p>\n

The player widely regarded as the greatest of all time pounced late in the first half in Texas on Monday with a trademark left-footed finish after neat build-up play.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

The predatory goal added to his hat-trick in Argentina\u2019s opening match to make it 17 in total<\/a> at World Cups.<\/p>\n

The 38-year-old then sealed the match deep in injury time after a scramble in the box, as he outfoxed four defenders who lined up to keep the ball out.<\/p>\n

It should have been even better for Messi, who missed a penalty early on, stunning a fiercely pro-Argentina 70,649 crowd at the air-conditioned home of the Dallas Cowboys.<\/p>\n

With both sides knowing a win would put them into the knockout rounds with a game to spare, Lautaro Martinez was brought down in the box, sandwiched by two Austrian players.<\/p>\n

Referee Amin Mohamed gave a penalty after a VAR intervention, and a wall of noise went up as Messi stepped forward on nine minutes.<\/p>\n

But his run-up was slow and his weak effort off target, dragging it wide.<\/p>\n

For all his brilliance, Messi \u2013 who turns 39 on Wednesday \u2013 is surprisingly poor from the penalty spot by his standards.<\/p>\n

He also saw his spot-kick saved by Wojciech Szczesny in a 2-0 win over Poland at the 2022 World Cup, where Argentina went on to be champions, and missed at the 2018 tournament.<\/p>\n

In the 19th minute Messi had a clear sniff at goal, only for Austria captain David Alaba to steal the ball off his toes at the last moment as he danced through on goal.<\/p>\n

Alaba denied Messi again just after the half-hour mark, blocking his goalbound shot with goalkeeper Alexander Schlager stranded.<\/p>\n

Ralf Rangnick\u2019s Austria, who beat debutants Jordan 3-1 in their opener, were content to sit back. They did not have a shot on target in the first half.<\/p>\n

\"SoccerMessi celebrates scoring Argentina\u2019s first goal [Troy Taormina\/Reuters]Messi makes history<\/p>\n

And then the came the big moment, Messi sweeping in on 38 minutes after being set up by Facundo Medina, with Thiago Almada cleverly letting the ball run through his legs to leave Argentina\u2019s talisman all on his own and the goal gaping.<\/p>\n

The Argentina fans, who greatly outnumbered their Austrian counterparts, rose to acclaim their hero.<\/p>\n

Messi had equalled Miroslav Klose\u2019s all-time mark of 16 World Cup goals when hitting a hat-trick in a 3-0 win over Algeria in the holders\u2019 opening game.<\/p>\n

Lionel Scaloni\u2019s side failed to build on their lead, and the second half drifted, with neither side creating much.<\/p>\n

If anything, Austria threatened slightly more, but Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez was only once seriously troubled.<\/p>\n

And then up popped Messi to have the last word at the death.<\/p>\n

Julian Alvarez\u2019s initial \u200c\u200cattempt \u200c\u200cwas saved by Schlager but the rebound was worked to Messi who, after seeing his first shot blocked, pounced to drive in a low strike from six yards out that confirmed the points.<\/p>\n

Messi told Telemundo he was \u201cenjoying the moment\u201d and seeing how far his side can go.
\u201cI\u2019m really happy about the win, especially as it\u2019s such a crucial victory, hard-fought and well-earned, but one that gives us peace of mind for what lies ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the World Cup; it was a very evenly matched, very intense match, and we\u2019re happy to have picked up six points and to have already qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Messi scores twice to become all-time leading scorer in men\u2019s World Cup history as Argentina reach knockout rounds.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753868,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12910,3159,2057,596,43,2186,44,588,41,39,42,40,124617],"class_list":["post-753867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-argentina","tag-austria","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-headlines","tag-latin-america","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753867"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753867\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}