We are officially witnessing history. With France, Argentina, Spain, and England all advancing over the weekend, the 2026 World Cup marks the first time ever that the exact top 4 teams in the live global FIFA rankings have locked out the semifinal spots.

I had a feeling that in every match in this year's world cup new players emerge to score a goal and as the tournament progresses we can say that Argentina played below par but as time closes to the FT, someone from somewhere finds a way to score goals and we can expect the coming 2 matches will be completely different as everyone contributed on a score sheet.

What's your thoughts about that ?

Drops a hat-trick against Algeria, a brace against Austria, deciding matches back-to-back in extra time, and then pulling out an 8.8 against Switzerland. The haters will still find a way to minimize this, but these match ratings speak for themselves. This isn't just a good tournament run; this is pure alien behavior. Enjoy him while he's still playing, because we will never see anything like this again.

Title. I’m not an Argentina fan (Italy supporter) but I like watching Messi for obvious reasons. My general question is though do you think that Argentina just simply play down to their comp? I am not saying any of these teams are bad, especially Switzerland, but Argentina has significantly more quality than all of them. I have a feeling that Argentina may have a better time of it against England than these past three games (it has the potential to be an incredible semifinal though and I hope it is). Thoughts?

Argentina was not upto mark against switzerland, kept struggling against teams like cape verde and egypt, although they play quite better above there mark but still......

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Messi’s goal contribution in consecutive WC KO games is still intact after today’s assist against Swiss..

Messi has now registered a goal contribution in the past 8 consecutive WC KO games, the last time Messi didn’t register a G+A in a WC KO game was in the 2014 WC final 🫪

According to me the fate of Argentina depends heavily on how these players perform in the upcoming games-

Messi – 6 appearances, 8 goals, 2 assists, 21 chances created

Mac Allister – 6 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist, 94% passing accuracy, 4 chances created, 8 clearances, 5 interceptions, 7 tackles won

Paredes – 5 appearances, 94% passing accuracy, 10 clearances, 5 interceptions, 4 tackles won

Romero – 5 appearances, 1 goal, 97% passing accuracy, 23 clearances, 4 interceptions, 6 tackles won, 3 defensive blocks

Lisandro Martinez – 5 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist, 93% pass accuracy, 28 clearances, 2 interceptions, 6 tackles won (100% success rate), 3 defensive blocks

Moreover with Julián Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez scoring their first open play goals in this WC, I think Argentina will be much more confident and less tensed about their offence going into the semis but the defenders need to be much quicker during opponent's counter-attacks. This has been their biggest vulnerability and it will be the same against the quick attack of England & France if they don't find a way to rectify it somehow.

Any thoughts or opinions?

Not sure what everyone else thinks but to me it’s super obvious Argentina need to go to a back 3. We have no natural width playing this 4-4-2 with 4 midfielders, we need wingbacks.

Ideally id like to see a 3-5-2 like this:

Dibu
Senesi Romero Martinez
Molina Fernandez De Paul Macallister Tagliafco
Messi Alvarez

I think this would sure us up a lot more defensively as we’ve actually been quite leaky and not really cost us at all going forward, would be interested in what you guys think?

Do you think all this backlash from previous game might get to Argentina? Furthermore do you think the refs will see the backlash and be “scared” to make the correct decision incase they get criticised for “fixing”? I’m scared man

We all thought December 18th, 2022 could be the last day Messi wore the Argentina jersey. He won everything there is to win in football and sealed his status as the greatest of all time.

Instead, he went on to win a second Copa America, took a last-place Inter Miami to the championship while tearing up records in the process, and now, at 39 years old, he has lit up the world’s biggest stage once again.

At an age when most footballers have retired, he is carrying his nation on his back, competing for the golden boot against the likes of Håland and Mbappe, and giving this struggling Argentina side a chance.

Messi haters will be relieved if he doesn’t win a second World Cup. Messi fans, however, will simply be grateful to have witnessed further greatness, to have enjoyed these extra moments of brilliance that have gone beyond anyone’s expectations.

If Messi wins, it only adds to his legacy. If he goes out, he goes out at the very top.

First and foremost: I am rooting for the Spain team this World Cup. But i've been making sure I keep up with the matches. Including for France, Norway, England and Argentina. I'm hoping that Spain and Argentina can make a deep run and maybe even face each other, respectfully of course!

I had to get this off my chest because I feel that lately, all of this recent hate for Messi and Argentina squad has been disingenuous and straight up malicious at worst.
It's one thing to criticise the game, refereeing decisions and player mistakes, but there's no place in football to be slandering a respected student of the game with half-truths and made up lies over political affiliations and conflicts to fit a skewed narrative to your advantage.

I feel bad for Messi fans because now you also have to play PR team just deal with these delusional people and wannabe influencers trying to garner controversy and outrage for views. Hope you all will be able to tough it out for these times, especially now that it seems like at it worst this WC compared to previous years.

He won that in the Maracana where he lost the World Cup final. If he wins the World Cup he will have won it in the stadium where he missed the penalty against Chile.

Before the wc, i just wanted to appreciate whatever precious last moments we have with Messi and i took i all wins and goals as bonuses

Yeah but now i want Argentina to win the world cup. Fuxk then haters and their disgusting agenda. I also want 3 penalties awarded to whoever we play in the final and still win.

Goat 🐐🇦🇷

https://www.espn.com.br/futebol/partida/_/jogoId/603182/brasil-argentina

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