{"id":530401,"date":"2026-07-08T00:52:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:52:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530401\/"},"modified":"2026-07-08T00:52:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T00:52:18","slug":"world-cup-2026-lionel-messis-tears-of-relief-after-argentina-comeback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/530401\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Lionel Messi’s tears of relief after Argentina comeback"},"content":{"rendered":"

Would Messi have been lost to the World Cup forever had Argentina lost? <\/p>\n

He would be 43 – the oldest outfield player to play at a World Cup – if he carried on to the next, though the lure of games being played in his home country may have sustained him.<\/p>\n

Instead, Messi can look forward to a quarter-final here against either Switzerland or Colombia.<\/p>\n

Former England goalkeeper Paul Robinson, watching in Atlanta for BBC Radio 5 Live, said: “That was incredible. Spectacular. Argentina were down and out. They were out of the tournament at one point.<\/p>\n

“Egypt are so frustrated with the refereeing decisions that have gone against them. They had a second goal disallowed before they got their second goal for an infringement that was almost on their own touchline.<\/p>\n

“Then Lionel Messi just stepped in and took over. Beautiful assist, great finish for his goal, and then the substitutions worked for Argentina.”<\/p>\n

Argentina’s recovery, and this was not simply the Messi show it should be said, also had implications for England who, when Egypt led, might just have believed it was a ‘now or never’ moment for reaching their first men’s World Cup final since 1966.<\/p>\n

England’s path to the final<\/a> was shaping up as Norway in the quarter-finals, then Egypt, Switzerland or Colombia in the last four if they got through.<\/p>\n

Instead, there remains the shadow of Messi and Argentina as the potential obstacle should they overcome the dangerous Norwegians.<\/p>\n

And Messi, even in advancing years, casts a giant shadow over any opponents, as Egypt found to their cost.<\/p>\n

Messi became the first player in World Cup history to score in six consecutive knockout-phase games and now has eight goals in this one. It is the most by a player in the opening five games since West Germany’s Gerd Muller scored 10 in Mexico in 1970.<\/p>\n

He has also contributed to 16 goals in his past nine World Cup games, with 13 goals and three assists.<\/p>\n

England’s concern will be he still has the power to add more. And looks in the mood to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Would Messi have been lost to the World Cup forever had Argentina lost? He would be 43 –…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":530402,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-530401","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530401","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=530401"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/530401\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/530402"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=530401"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=530401"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=530401"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}