World Cup: Messi ties Klose's record with hat-trick in Argentina's win over Algeria | OneFootball

Lionel Messi ties Miroslav Klose as the all-time World Cup top-scorer with a hat-trick in Argentina's 3-0 win over Algeria. It was his first treble in the competition after he led La Albiceleste to their third triumph in his last game: the 2022 final.

Before the first hydration break, the two teams found the net three times. Messi and Farès Chaïbi saw their goals chalked off for offside before the former opened the scoring with a spectacular effort in the 17th minute. 

In his 200th international appearance, the 38-year-old doubled his tally when Luca Zidane, the son of 1998 World Cup winner Zinedine, fumbled Alexis Mac Allister's effort. Messi, who is the first player to appear in six competitions, completed his first World Cup hat-trick fifteen minutes before time.

And that was enough for him to level with Klose on the scoring chart with 16 goals. Kylian Mbappe also closed the gap with the 2014 winner when he reached 14 goals after his brace against Senegal earlier on Tuesday. 

Bayer Leverkusen’s Exequiel Palacios was an unused substitute for Argentina, while former Stuttgart attacker Nico Gonzalez entered ten minutes into the second-half. Chaïbi (Eintracht Frankfurt), Remi Bensebaini (Borussia Dortmund), Ibrahim Maza (Leverkusen) and Mohamed Amoura (Wolfsburg) featured for Algeria.