New Delhi: Defending champions Argentina finished the group stage with three wins from three after beating Jordan 3-1 on Saturday.Giovani Lo Celso, Lautaro Martinez and Lionel Messi scored Argentina, who had already secured top spot in Group J before the match. Jordan, playing in their first World Cup, ended their campaign with three defeats.Argentina will now face Cape Verde in the Round of 32 on Friday in Miami.
Lo Celso and Martinez put Argentina in control
With nine changes to the starting XI, Argentina still looked good.Lo Celso, making his first World Cup start, opened the scoring in the 19th minute with a direct free-kick. It was his first World Cup goal and the first scored by an Argentine player other than Lionel Messi at this tournament.Lautaro Martinez took the lead in the 31st minute from a penalty. The penalty was awarded after a VAR review showed that Julian Alvarez had been kicked in the face during a verbal fight. Earlier, Martinez hit the near post.The goal was also Martinez’s first at the 2026 World Cup. He and midfielder Emiliano Martinez were the only players to start three games for Argentina.
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Messi will leave the bench to make history
Messi started on the bench after Argentina had already finished first in the group. The 39-year-old came on in the 60th minute, three days after his birthday, in place of Lautaro Martinez.Twenty minutes later, he scored on a free-kick to make it 3-1.It was Messi’s sixth goal of the tournament and his 19th World Cup goal, extending his record as the top scorer for men in World Cup history.The goal also made him the first player to score in seven consecutive World Cup matches. He entered the tournament having scored all five of Argentina’s goals in wins over Algeria and Austria, including his first World Cup hat-trick and a record-breaking hat-trick against Austria.
