Messi hat-trick – Lionel Messi produced a World Cup first on Tuesday night, scoring a hat trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria in the 2026 tournament opener. The 38-year-old tied the all-time World Cup scoring record with 16 goals and did it alongside Inter Miami teammate
When Lionel Messi struck again, the night felt slightly unreal for anyone watching him play at 38 years old. Tuesday night. in Argentina’s opening group stage match of the 2026 FIFA World Cup against Algeria. Messi delivered a performance that will be talked about for years — a hat trick. his first-ever at a World Cup. as the reigning champions ripped through an overmatched Algeria 3-0.
His first goal set the tone early. Messi found the net in the 17th minute with a strike from outside the box. and Algeria goalkeeper Luca Zidane couldn’t parry it away. The timing mattered. too: once Messi started to turn the game into something easier than it should have been. Argentina’s control never truly slipped.
Messi’s finishing was matched by the way Argentina built it. The opener came with an assist from midfielder Rodrigo de Paul. a close friend of Messi’s who plays alongside him at Inter Miami. That connection has become its own kind of milestone. With that assist-to-goal combination. Messi and de Paul became only the fifth pair of MLS teammates to combine for a goal in FIFA World Cup history.
There’s a deeper twist inside the stat. The four previous duos to achieve the feat all did so for the United States men’s national team. which means the Argentinian pair is the first non-American duo to notch this achievement. It’s not just a moment of chemistry in a single match; it’s the kind of record that underlines how rare the specific pathway is — and how perfectly it worked when it mattered most.
De Paul’s role has never been just decoration, and Tuesday night made that plain. Messi’s work up front needs a midfield engine behind it. and de Paul has been that engine. bringing all-around contributions that shape how Argentina plays and how they move toward the tournament’s biggest target: repeating as World Cup champion.
Messi then delivered the kind of scoring night that changes conversations globally. His hat trick pushed him into a shared place in World Cup history. By scoring three times against Algeria, he tied the all-time record for goals scored in the competition, reaching 16. He also made the moment personal in the purest football sense by recording his first-ever World Cup hat trick — a detail that carries weight because it’s not something even a player with his résumé could just assume would happen at the World Cup.
Argentina’s 3-0 win wasn’t only a statement of intent; it also set expectations for what follows inside the group stage. Even if his scoring pace can’t reasonably be expected to continue at this level. the sheer dominance he showed against Algeria at the start of the tournament has already tightened the space for everyone around him.
With Messi operating like the orchestrator of Argentina’s attack. players such as Alexis Mac Allister. Lautaro Martinez. and Julian Alvarez should have even more room to work with moving forward. In other words. Algeria may have spent the night trying to contain Messi. but the rest of the field will now have to plan for what happens when Argentina’s leading figure is this productive this early.
It’s hard to shake the simplest truth from Tuesday night: Messi still looks ageless when he’s on the pitch. and Argentina look like a team built to punish the second they smell vulnerability. The record is tied. The hat trick is done. And the group stage opener has already set a standard Algeria never came close to meeting.
Lionel Messi Argentina Algeria 2026 FIFA World Cup hat trick Rodrigo de Paul Inter Miami Luca Zidane MLS teammates World Cup goals record