World Cup: How many goals do Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe need to break record today? | OneFootball

World Cup history could be made tonight

Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe are set to play tonight as they bid to break the World Cup record for goals.

Messi, 38, became the joint-record scorer at the World Cup on 16 goals after he opened his campaign with a hat-trick in Argentina’s 3-0 win over Algeria.

Mbappe, 27, netted a brace against Senegal to take his total to 14 World Cup goals and secure a 3-1 win for Les Bleus.

Argentina are facing Austria in Dallas, Texas tonight (6pm BST) while Mbappe’s France play Iraq in Philadelphia four hours later (10pm BST) - a win for both would secure knockout football.

Messi vs Mbappe

ES Composite

What do Messi and Mbappe need to break World Cup goal record today?

If Messi scores at least once tonight, he will break Miroslav Klose’s record - the German broke Ronaldo Nazario’s with a goal in the 7-1 semi-final victory over Brazil in 2014.

Messi is playing in his sixth World Cup campaign - joint-highest with Cristiano Ronaldo - and his 16 goals have come in 27 games.

He will have to break the record against Austria, who are at their first World Cup in 28 years. They boast talented defender David Alaba, 33, whose Real Madrid contract expires this month.

He plays alongside former Chelsea attacker Carney Chukwuemeka, 22, and Marko Arnautovic, 37. The latter scored in their opening 3-1 victory over Jordan.

What Mbappe needs to break the record will change as the evening progresses: the Real Madrid forward requires a hat-trick to move above Klose, but, by the time France play, Messi could be even further clear.

Mbappe has scored in both the 2018 and 2022 finals - including a hat-trick in Qatar as France lost to Messi’s Argentina. This is his third World Cup.

His opponents tonight are Iraq, who were on the wrong side of a Norway beating in their opener, as Erling Haaland’s brace in his first ever World Cup game condemned them to a comprehensive 4-1 defeat.

Their solitary goal that day came from Aymen Hussein, who is Iraq’s fifth all-time goalscorer.

They have appeared in every edition of the World Cup since 2014, having only qualified three times before that in 1978, 1998 and 2006.