♾️ Messi, endless legend: 30 matches, 20 goals and new world records 🐐 | OneFootball

Lionel Messi continues to treat the World Cup like a personal page to update match after match.

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Against Cape Verde in the round of 32, Argentina suffered more than expected, came close to taking the match all the way to penalties, and in the end booked their place in the round of 16 with a 3-2 extra-time win decided by a Diney Borges own goal.

But amid a difficult night for the world champions, there was another historic night for La Pulga: 30 World Cup appearances in total, 20 goals in the tournament, eight straight matches on the scoresheet, and his seventh goal in four games in this edition.

🔥 Messi ALWAYS decisive

In Miami, his new footballing home, Messi opened the scoring in the 29th minute and then had a hand in the decisive move too, with the corner that led to Cristian Romero’s header being turned into his own net by Borges.

📸 ROBERTO SCHMIDT - AFP or licensors

Cape Verde went out to applause, Argentina moved on, but once again the spotlight belonged to him.

🔝 30 appearances: no one like Messi in World Cup history

Thanks to the match against Cape Verde, Messi became the first player ever to reach 30 appearances in the final stages of the World Cup.

A number that carries even more weight over time: from his debut in 2006 against Serbia and Montenegro to the 2026 World Cup, it marks a full 20 years in football’s biggest competition.

The appearances record had already been his since Qatar 2022, when he passed Lothar Matthäus in the final against France.

6️⃣ World Cups, 2️⃣0️⃣ years after his first goal

The first great snapshot of 2026 had already come in the opener against Algeria.

That day, Messi became the first player to play in six World Cups, and he did it by scoring a hat-trick, exactly 20 years after his first World Cup goal in 2006.

📸 ROBERTO SCHMIDT - AFP or licensors

That match also marked his 200th appearance for Argentina.

👑 20 World Cup goals: the frontier no one had reached

The goal against Cape Verde took Messi to 20 total goals in World Cup history.

He is the first player to reach this milestone and has extended his lead at the top of the all-time scoring chart, with Kylian Mbappé behind him on 18.

He had already overtaken Miroslav Klose in the group stage with his brace against Austria: Messi first matched the German with his hat-trick against Algeria, then moved past him to become the all-time top scorer in men’s World Cup history.

From then on, he kept updating the tally: 17, 18, 19, 20.

🎱 EIGHT straight matches on the scoresheet: a streak never seen before

The most impressive stat, perhaps, is the consistency. With his goal against Cape Verde, Messi scored in his eighth consecutive World Cup match, a run that began in 2022 and has continued into 2026 without interruption.

It includes goals against Australia, the Netherlands, Croatia and France in Qatar, then Algeria, Austria, Jordan and Cape Verde in North America.

Before him, Just Fontaine and Jairzinho had reached six consecutive matches with at least one goal. Messi first broke that mark against Jordan, then stretched it to eight with his strike in the round of 32.

💥 Seven goals in four matches: Qatar 2022 already matched

The 2022 World Cup was the one of his ultimate coronation: seven goals, three assists, the world title, and a legendary final against France.

In 2026, Messi reached the same goal tally after just four matches: a hat-trick against Algeria, a brace against Austria, a goal off the bench against Jordan, and another strike against Cape Verde.

Opta confirmed another record: Messi is the first player to score at least seven goals in two different editions of the World Cup, in 2022 and 2026.

What’s more, with seven goals in this edition, he is right back in the race for the Golden Boot, a trophy he has never won: in 2022 he finished second, one goal behind Mbappé.

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

📸 CHANDAN KHANNA - AFP or licensors