Argentina opened Grupo J at the Mundial 2026 with a 3-0 win over Argelia at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, and Lionel Messi did all the damage. He scored three times, including his first hat-trick in the tournament, giving the reigning champion the start it wanted and leaving the match looking settled long before the final whistle.
The result matters because Messi reached 16 World Cup goals, a total that puts him level with Miroslav Klose at the top of the tournament’s scoring list. His first and third goals came from left-footed shots from outside the area, while the second arrived from close range after Alexis Mac Allister forced a long shot and Luca Zidane could only spill the rebound. For a team framed as the third most successful in World Cup history with three titles, this was not just a win. It was a warning that Argentina can still turn a tight opening night into something one-sided.
That kind of start matters even more because the group was already taking shape around Argentina before it kicked off. Austria is next, and the draw is not gentle: Konrad Laimer, David Alaba and Marcel Sabitzer give it enough pedigree to make the next round feel less like a formality than a test. Argentina’s own place in World Cup history is clear enough without the numbers being repeated for effect, but the list around it is crowded too, with Brasil on five titles, Alemania and Italia on four each, and Francia, Uruguay, Inglaterra and España all part of the same long record.
The friction is that a 3-0 opening win can look like comfort when the tournament is still young, but the next match will show whether this was a statement or just a fast start. Austria has history of its own, with finishes of fourth in Italy 1934 and third in Suiza 1954, though its last World Cup in Francia 1998 ended in the group stage without a win. Argentina has set the tone. Now it has to prove that the tone holds.
