{"id":625979,"date":"2026-06-07T12:50:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:50:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625979\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T12:50:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T12:50:12","slug":"world-cup-2026-lionel-messi-not-used-in-argentina-beat-honduras-as-brazil-and-germany-also-win-warm-up-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/625979\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup 2026: Lionel Messi not used in Argentina beat Honduras as Brazil and Germany also win warm-up games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Germany earned a 2-1 victory against World Cup co-hosts United States in the final warm-up game for both teams.<\/p>\n

Kai Havertz had an early goal for Germany cancelled out by Antonee Robinson’s stunning volley before Leroy Sane’s winner for Julian Nagelsmann’s side.<\/p>\n

“I’m happy with the performance of everyone,” said US coach Mauricio Pochettino, who believed his side were “unlucky” to lose.<\/p>\n

“We played one of the most important teams in the world. I think we need to be happy with that.”<\/p>\n

The US will start their World Cup campaign against Paraguay on 12 June, while Germany, who have won nine games in a row, begin with a game against Curacao on 14 June.<\/p>\n

Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann said his side’s win against the US had been a “perfect test for us, both in terms of the weather and the opponent”.<\/p>\n

Brazil beat Egypt 2-1 in the final warm-up game for both countries, with Newcastle United midfielder Bruno Guimaraes scoring early on for the winners.<\/p>\n

Mostafa Zico equalised for Egypt but Raphinha set up Endrick to win it for the South American side, who had to take defender Wesley off after 17 minutes.<\/p>\n

Egypt forward Mohamed Salah, who recovered from a “minor muscle injury”<\/a> to play for Liverpool towards the end of the season, came on for the second half against Brazil.<\/p>\n

“Salah underwent a rehabilitation program with Liverpool and then with the national team, and he is now ready for matches,” said Egypt coach Hossam Hassan.<\/p>\n

Egypt’s opening game of the World Cup on Monday, 15 June will be against Belgium, who thrashed Tunisia 5-0.<\/p>\n

Leandro Trossard, Charles de Ketelaere, Kevin de Bruyne, Dodi Lukebakio and Nicolas Raskin each scored against a Tunisia side reduced to 10 men following the dismissal of Ismael Gharbi after 62 minutes.<\/p>\n

Belgium boss Rudi Garcia brought Romelu Lukaku on after 66 minutes as he manages the striker’s return to action.<\/p>\n

“It is a good preparation for the World Cup, we know this team can do great things,” said Garcia, whose side were beaten 2-0 by Croatia in their previous game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Germany earned a 2-1 victory against World Cup co-hosts United States in the final warm-up game for both…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-625979","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}