Barcelona legend Lionel Messi sets unwanted penalty record at the World Cup | OneFootball

Barcelona legend and Argentina captain Lionel Messi has carved out an unwanted piece of football history by becoming the first player to miss two penalties at a single FIFA World Cup tournament (excluding penalty shootouts).

The historic blunder occurred earlier today during Argentina’s high-stakes Round of 16 match against Egypt at the Atlanta Stadium, temporarily freezing the world-class icon’s relentless charge toward another international title.

What happenend?

The dramatic incident took place in the 20th minute of the first half while the defending world champions were trailing 1-0 after a shock early goal from Egypt’s Yasser Ibrahim.

After midfielder Enzo Fernández was fouled inside the box, Messi stepped up to the spot with an opportunity to level the score and extend his lead in the World Cup Golden Boot race.

However, Egyptian goalkeeper Mostafa Shobeir guessed correctly, diving low to his left to firmly parry away Messi’s low effort.

Unwanted piece of history

This marks a staggering continuation of Messi’s penalty-kick woes on the world’s biggest stage. The 39-year-old maestro has now taken eight career penalties in World Cup history, failing to convert exactly half of them.

His first miss of the 2026 tournament came during the group stage against Austria, where he uncharacteristically sent the ball entirely wide of the target.

Messi failed to score his penalty. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)

Today’s failure against Shobeir officially places him alone in the record books as the only player to come up short twice from 12 yards out in a single tournament edition.

While Messi already secured football immortality earlier in this campaign by overtaking Miroslav Klose as the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history, his spot-kick vulnerability remains his rarest Achilles’ heel.

With a little under 20 minutes left in this win-or-go-home knockout fixture, Argentina are trailing by two goals and Messi & co. are staring at the possibility of an early exit from the tournament.