{"id":499137,"date":"2026-06-28T04:37:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:37:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/499137\/"},"modified":"2026-06-28T04:37:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-28T04:37:09","slug":"fifa-world-cup-lionel-messi-scores-again-as-argentina-beat-jordan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/499137\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Lionel Messi scores again as Argentina beat Jordan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Argentina finished emphatically top of Group J with maximum points after also beating Algeria 3-0 and defeating Austria 2-0, all the goals coming from Messi.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">The holders and their 39-year-old talisman look formidable, albeit in one of the weaker groups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">A much-changed Argentina scored in the first half through a Giovani Lo Celso free-kick and a penalty by Lautaro Martinez.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Mousa Al-Tamari pulled one back 10 minutes after half-time for Jordan, whose first World Cup was already over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni made nine changes, retaining only goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and forward Lautaro Martinez from the Austria win.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Jordan were already eliminated after defeats to Algeria and Austria, rendering the match inconsequential in terms of the tournament.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">But competition in the Argentina squad is fierce and Scaloni wanted his side to join France and co-hosts Mexico with nine points.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Argentina also wanted to make a statement ahead of the meeting with surprise packages Cape Verde as they attempt to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">The home of the Dallas Cowboys was packed with Argentina fans and their team dominated from the off.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Lo Celso got the party started, bending in a free-kick on 19 minutes that goalkeeper Yazeed Abulaila got nowhere near having inexplicably moved in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">A relaxed-looking Messi smiled broadly from the sidelines.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Soon after the champions doubled their lead when Martinez rifled in a penalty following a VAR review when Marcos Senesi appeared to be kicked in the face as he went for a diving header.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Minutes after half-time the crowd began calling for their captain Messi, the leading scorer in World Cup history.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">As he stripped off to come on, Tamari stabbed in from close range to pull a goal back and stun much of the stadium.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">The match felt like a friendly after that, before Messi bent in a tame free-kick with 10 minutes left to go with his hat-trick against Algeria and brace versus Austria.<\/p>\n<p class=\"NQVPqQgxO\" style=\"display:none\">Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.tvnz.co.nz\/passes\">TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Argentina finished emphatically top of Group J with maximum points after also beating Algeria 3-0 and defeating Austria&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":499138,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[6030,8018,806,4498,14796,31867,10748,13651,10542,36862,5267,16802,22946,168033,118355,111,139,69,22257,14729,4730,213,10809,165,16559,59608,100955,102,377],"class_list":["post-499137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-again","tag-argentina","tag-as","tag-beat","tag-beating","tag-bench","tag-came","tag-cape","tag-cup","tag-fifa","tag-goal","tag-jordan","tag-knockout","tag-lionel","tag-messi","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-score","tag-scores","tag-sixth","tag-sports","tag-sunday","tag-their","tag-tournament","tag-verde","tag-warmed","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=499137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/499137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/499138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=499137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=499137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=499137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}