Messi scores elite goal as Argentina leads Cape Verde 1-0

Lionel Messi pushed Argentina in front with a seventh tournament goal, steering in a left-footed finish to make it 1-0 against Cabo Verde in Miami. Lisandro Martínez started the move with a filtered ball into the area, and Messi controlled the ball in the six-yard box before finishing with the kind of precision that keeps deciding knockout matches.

The goal came in the round of 32 of the 2026 World Cup on Friday, July 3, 2026, and it again placed Messi at the center of Argentina’s attack. The defending champions had reached the knockout stage after winning their group, and the match against Cabo Verde carried the weight of a team still trying to extend a title defense that has already stretched deep into the tournament.

Argentina’s path does not end in Miami. The winner of the match will advance to face Egypt in Atlanta on July 7 for a place in the quarter-finals, a tie that will keep the defending champions on a direct route through the bracket if they hold their lead. Cabo Verde entered the game as tournament debutants, but Messi’s strike gave Argentina the margin it needed to control the pace and shape of the contest.

The moment also reinforced how central Messi remains to Argentina’s ceiling at this World Cup. He arrived in the knockout rounds with seven goals and as the team’s most reliable attacking finish, carrying a side that is now five matches from becoming the first nation since Brazil more than 60 years ago to win back-to-back World Cups. With each decisive touch, Messi is doing more than adding to his own record: he is defining how far Argentina can go while the pressure on the reigning champions keeps rising.