Lionel Messi missed a penalty, then scored twice to move past Miroslav Klose’s World Cup goals record. The 38-year-old did it after a few days that already had him sharing the tournament scoring lead, and after his camp said last week that Jorge Messi is going through a health situation.
Messi, Klose and the record
Messi reached the record-breaking mark in the 38th minute, after Thiago Almada produced a dummy that opened the lane. A few minutes earlier, he had sent his penalty wide of the goal entirely, leaving the record chase hanging before he finished it anyway.
His second goal came with a minute left in second-half stoppage time. Messi played a perfect ball across to Julián Alvarez, then scored from the rebound to move beyond Klose and into sole possession of the World Cup scoring record.
Argentina around Lionel Messi
The backdrop inside the team is part of the story. Emiliano Martínez said he would die in goal for his captain and long-time teammate, Nicolás Otamendi tattooed Messi’s face on his body after winning the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and Rodrigo De Paul chose a transfer to Inter Miami to play alongside him.
Those details fit the same pattern: Messi is still the center of Argentina’s attack, and the players around him keep giving him the kind of protection and deference that turns one forward’s night into the team’s main event. A few days earlier, his first World Cup hat-trick had already pushed him into co-ownership of the all-time tournament scoring record before this match gave him the lead alone.
Jorge Messi and the backdrop
The off-field concern has not disappeared either. Last week, Messi’s camp said Jorge Messi is going through a health situation, and that shadow sat over a match in which the captain still found two goals after the penalty miss and the first effort that was cleared off the goalline. For Argentina, that is the reality now: the record is his, but the pressure never really leaves the match while he is still on the pitch.
