{"id":485161,"date":"2026-06-10T05:31:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:31:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485161\/"},"modified":"2026-06-10T05:31:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T05:31:12","slug":"messi-scores-on-injury-return-as-argentina-beat-iceland-in-world-cup-warm-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/485161\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi scores on injury return as Argentina beat Iceland in World Cup warm-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Lionel Messi scored within minutes of making his return from an injury scare as Argentina beat Iceland 3-0 in their final World Cup warm-up in Auburn, Alabama on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Messi started on the bench, with the eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner being eased back to fitness after leaving Inter Miami\u2019s 6-4 win over Philadelphia with muscle fatigue on May 24.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He was joined on the sidelines at the start by Julian Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez and Alexis Mac Allister as Lionel Scaloni named an experimental line-up in front of an 88,000 capacity crowd.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Messi is expected to feature in his sixth World Cup and allayed fears he may not be ready for the start of the tournament in a supreme 20-minute cameo.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Argentina begin their defence of the World Cup against Algeria on June 16 before also facing Austria and Jordan in Group J.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Argentina\u2019s Lautaro Martinez takes a shot during his side\u2019s friendly against Iceland at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Photo: Getty Images\" data-qa=\"BaseImage-handleRenderImage-StyledImage\" class=\"e1gf69pb2 css-6ikqhs e445x7d0\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/c211900f-a195-49f3-a858-736738f304f0_ad9a845c.jpg\" title=\"Argentina\u2019s Lautaro Martinez takes a shot during his side\u2019s friendly against Iceland at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Photo: Getty Images\"\/>Argentina\u2019s Lautaro Martinez takes a shot during his side\u2019s friendly against Iceland at Jordan-Hare Stadium. Photo: Getty Images<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Iceland should have taken the lead inside the first few minutes when Mikael Egill Ellertsson blasted over with the goal gaping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lionel Messi scored within minutes of making his return from an injury scare as Argentina beat Iceland 3-0&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485162,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[157501,3335,9877,51663,8247,224569,54345,15866,85,54341,46,54317,54038,54311,54343,3987,105,6866],"class_list":["post-485161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-alexis-mac-allister","tag-algeria","tag-argentina","tag-auburn","tag-austria","tag-elias-olafsson","tag-enzo-fernandez","tag-iceland","tag-il","tag-inter-miami","tag-israel","tag-julian-alvarez","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-nico-paz","tag-philadelphia","tag-sports","tag-world-cup"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485161\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}