Messi stars as Argentina reach final, Canada break new ground at FIFA World Cup 2026™ | OneFootball

Leo Messi, Rodrigo De Paul and Dayne St. Clair represented Argentina and Canada at the FIFA World Cup 2026™, becoming the second, third and fourth players in the club’s history to be selected for the tournament. According to Inter Miami, Argentina finished runners-up and Canada recorded their first points and first appearance in the knockout stage.

Messi featured in all eight of Argentina’s matches, delivering eight goals and four assists, while De Paul played seven times, starting six, and set up Messi in the opener against Algeria.

He began with a hat-trick against Algeria, tying Miroslav Klose on 16 career World Cup goals, reaching 200 Argentina caps and becoming the first to play at six World Cups. He then struck both in a 2-0 win over Austria to reach 17 and 18 and take the all-time scoring lead. That match also brought a record 18 World Cup wins and a run of six successive scoring appearances.

He scored again in a 3-1 defeat of Jordan as Argentina won Group J. In the 3-2 Round of 32 win over Cape Verde he made a record 30th World Cup appearance and became the first to score in eight straight World Cup games. He added a goal and assist in a 3-2 comeback against Egypt in the Round of 16, becoming the first to score in six consecutive knockout matches and nine in a row overall, then broke the assists record with 10 in a 3-1 quarter-final win over Switzerland.

Two assists in the semi-final comeback against England extended his sequence to 13 successive games with a goal or assist for club or country. He finished with a record 34th World Cup appearance in the final against Spain. De Paul’s seven appearances underpinned the run.

St. Clair, selected for a second World Cup, did not feature. Canada finished second in Group B with four points after a 1-1 draw with Bosnia and Herzegovina and a 6-0 win over Qatar. They beat South Africa in added time in the Round of 32 before exiting to Morocco in the Round of 16, sealing the best World Cup finish in the nation’s history.

Source: Inter Miami