Argentina

Holders Argentina narrowly avoided one of the biggest shocks in World Cup history by scraping past heroic debutants Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time. A dramatic 111th-minute own goal from Diney Borges ultimately saved the world champions…

Every World Cup needs its fairytale, and Cape Verde have already written one. Making their tournament debut, the island nation of just over half a million people has captured the imagination of football fans by reaching the knockout…

The third round of group matches did not take much time to get over. Still, it was a drag. This World Cup has already seen eight more matches than the entirety of the previous iteration. The 64 games in Qatar were enough to give us a winner…

Lionel Messi has turned the 2026 World Cup group stage into a personal procession through the record books. Across Argentina's three Group J games, against Algeria, Austria and Jordan, the 39-year-old captain has broken or equalled a string…

As the clock ticked down on Saudi Arabia’s 0-0 draw with Cape Verde in Houston last Friday, the online backlash was already in full swing. Prince Abdul Rahman bin Musaid, a former Al-Hilal president with 6.7 million followers on X, did not…

I should have been more careful. When, last week, I decided to rank eight favourites to win the tournament, it seemed like a straightforward task. But it is not anymore. Ranking eight teams, all perched at the topmost position in eight…

Day 11 of the fifa.com/tournaments/mens/worldcup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">FIFA World Cup 2026 produced 13 goals across four matches, with Lionel Messi once again dominating the headlines as Argentina defeated Austria.…

The gods of football, as someone noted afterwards, clearly did not want the record broken from the penalty spot. They had something better in mind. In the ninth minute at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, Messi struck a penalty wide of…

The World Cup rarely offers such neat symmetry. This almost feels scripted. And if it is, I am loving it. Last week, Messi, Mbappe and Haaland scored a total of seven goals within hours of each other. This time they scored a total of six,…

History has been rewritten in Texas. Just two days shy of his 39th birthday, Lionel Messi has officially become the all-time leading goalscorer in World Cup history, inspiring Argentina to a clinical 2-0 victory over Austria at Dallas…