🤔 Club World Cup: should Messi have been sent off against Algeria? | OneFootball

It’s an image that’s causing a huge stir.

On the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, Lionel Messi gave us a football moment of the kind we rarely see.

In his first match of the 2026 World Cup, La Pulga simply bagged a hat-trick to crush Algeria and become the joint top scorer in the competition’s history.

However, the match could have turned out very differently for the Argentine legend. Just a few minutes after his goal, Leo Messi was guilty of stamping on Aïssa Mandi’s calf.

A foul that escaped both the referee and VAR, but one that sparked a major debate among those watching the match.

In your opinion, should Leo Messi have been sent off for this foul?

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇫🇷 here.

📸 ROBERTO SCHMIDT - AFP or licensors