Lionel Messi sends powerful message to Argentina after Algeria win at World Cup

Lionel Messi and Argentina are looking to defend their World Cup title in 2026 after their epic victory back in Qatar in 2022, and they started their title defense with a bang. Messi notched his first-career World Cup hat trick in a historic 3-0 victory over Algeria to get Argentina on top of Group J on Tuesday night.

Argentina opened their campaign in Kansas City at Arrowhead Stadium, famously the home of the Kansas City Chiefs. On Tuesday, the stadium that is always full of red was packed with baby blue as the Argentine faithful came out in waves to support their squad.

After the game, Messi gave a shoutout to the fans for making it a great environment in the World Cup opener.

From the captain to an entire nation.

Lionel Messi shares a heartfelt message with Argentina after a historic night on the World Cup stage. #WorldCup | #FIFAWorldCup | #Messi | #Argentina pic.twitter.com/HgiP83YmWK

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) June 17, 2026

“I’m grateful to the people, because once again it shows that Argentina is always behind us,” Messi said (translated from Spanish). “We came back, we filled the stadium again. I don’t know if there were 80,000 people or more. Just thankful for all the effort they make, wherever we are they’re always there.”

Messi opened the scoring with an incredible strike in the 17th minute, finding the top right corner to put Argentina in front. He added two more goals in the second half, one off of a rebound and another where he found the left corner with a great strike to secure the hat trick.

Messi also tied the all-time World Cup goal record with Miroslav Klose during this game His third goal of the night got him to 16 in his career, meaning one more will give him the outright record all to himself.

Argentina will continue its quest through Group J on Monday against Austria before the group stage finale on June 27 against Jordan. After getting three points here, Messi and company are the heavy favorites to top the group and should enter the knockout stage as one of the favorites to lift the trophy in New Jersey in a month’s time. If the star forward can produce like he did on Tuesday, this team will be very hard to stop.

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