Argentina defeated Iceland 3-0 in their final warm up match against Iceland in Alabama.<\/p>\n
The defending champions sign off their World Cup preparations in style, with a vintage Messi cameo stealing the show in Auburn<\/p>\n
He needed just 20 minutes. Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer who ever lived, stepped off the bench at Jordan-Hare Stadium and reminded the watching world exactly why Argentina go into the 2026 FIFA World Cup as the team everyone must beat.<\/p>\n
After recovering from a muscle injury, the captain of the reigning world champions played 20 minutes and scored a penalty in Argentina\u2019s 3-0 victory over Iceland \u2014 their final tune-up match before the World Cup. The defending champions head into the tournament in ominous form.<\/p>\n
Messi had missed Argentina\u2019s 2-0 friendly victory over Honduras on June 6, recovering from muscle fatigue and a slight strain in his left hamstring suffered in his last appearance with Inter Miami on May 24. There were no lingering concerns on show on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n
Just days before his 39th birthday and his sixth World Cup, Messi came on in the 70th minute and scored a penalty kick after Lautaro Mart\u00ednez was fouled inside the area. Characteristically calm, he dispatched the spot-kick without a flicker of doubt.<\/p>\n
With the strike, Messi inflated his staggering international tallies to 117 goals and 61 assists in 198 caps, while simultaneously reaching 911 all-time career goals. As if the records could keep getting more extraordinary \u2014 they always do.<\/p>\n
By finding the back of the net against Iceland, Messi also became the oldest player ever to score a goal for the Argentina national team.<\/p>\n
Argentina were already in control long before their captain took to the field. Valent\u00edn Barco broke the deadlock in the eighth minute with a brilliant strike from outside the box, giving Argentina an early advantage.<\/p>\n
The second half brought a shift in tempo as the big names were introduced. Messi\u2019s incisive pass led to Lautaro Mart\u00ednez winning a penalty, which Messi himself calmly converted from the spot in the 72nd minute to double Argentina\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
His impact didn\u2019t stop there. The captain orchestrated Argentina\u2019s third and final goal of the evening, dropping a perfectly weighted ball into the box to Rodrigo De Paul, who squared it for Thiago Almada to tap home and wrap up the 3-0 victory.<\/p>\n
Argentina owned the ball with 63% possession and out-shot Iceland 15-6, including a 7-1 edge in shots on target. It was a masterclass in controlled dominance.<\/p>\n
In 20 minutes on the pitch, Messi packed a clean goal, tidy passing and a confident all-round cameo \u2014 scoring with his only shot on target. With 21 touches, he stayed involved without forcing the tempo. At 38, his football intelligence does the running for him.<\/p>\n
Valent\u00edn Barco led the way with a Sofascore rating of 7.8, helped by his early goal and two key passes in a lively 45 minutes, while Messi posted a 7.7 after coming on in the 70th minute, converting from the spot and knitting play together with 15 accurate passes.<\/p>\n
With the final preparatory work done, La Albiceleste now turn their attention to what really matters. Argentina are thinking about their 2026 World Cup debut against Algeria on June 17th.<\/p>\n
After Algeria Argentina will face Austria 22nd June then wind her group J campaign against Jordan on 28th June.<\/p>\n
The post Messi marks return with a goal as Argentina hit three past Iceland\u00a0<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Argentina defeated Iceland 3-0 in their final warm up match against Iceland in Alabama. The defending champions sign off their World Cup preparations in style, with a vintage Messi cameo stealing the show in Auburn He needed just 20 minutes. Lionel Messi, the greatest footballer who ever lived, stepped off the bench at Jordan-Hare Stadium […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143591\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}