Messi scored his 20th goal in the World Cup, Argentina beat Cape Verde in overtime

Argentina's star football player Lionel Messi added another impressive performance to his World Cup history, raising his tournament goal tally to 20 and continuing his record as the first player to score in eight consecutive matches. In the match played on Friday, which witnessed a great struggle, Argentina defeated Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time to secure a ticket to the next round. Messi's goal in the 29th minute was a critical strike that took him to the top of the tournament's goal scoring race and put him two goals ahead of his closest rival Kylian Mbappé. With this goal that shook the net, the experienced player, who signed his 124th goal in his international career, is only behind Cristiano Ronaldo. Although Argentina increased the pressure throughout the match, breaking Cape Verde's resistance was not easy, and the match turned into an overtime battle where the tension never dropped.

One of the most striking statistics of the tournament, the Golden Boot race, is heating up, and Messi is currently the sole leader of the summit with his seven goals. The French star Mbappé, the closest follower, is in second place with six goals, while Norwegian Erling Haaland and English Harry Kane show that they are still in the race with five goals each. Messi scored a total of 12 goals in his last eight World Cup matches, proving the continuity of his superior performance on the biggest stages of football and ensuring his team won in difficult matches. According to Fifa data, Messi, who holds the title of being the only player to score in eight consecutive matches in World Cup history, has achieved an unprecedented success in this field. The 35-year-old football player, who maintained his claim in the tournament played in 2026, was awarded a silver medal in 2022 and a bronze medal in 2014.

Looking at the technical details of the match, it was seen that Lisandro Martínez made an incredible pass on the way to the goal for Argentina, and Messi evaluated this ball with magnificent timing and cold-bloodedness, defeating goalkeeper Vozinha. After taking the goal, Messi immediately pointed to Martinez, who made the assist, emphasizing the importance of teamwork and friendship once again, and the harmony between the duo was visible to the eyes. However, the Cape Verde team did not give up despite the curtain tightening, and with the pressure they created especially in the second half of the match, they closed the gap and brought the score to 2-2. Following this development, the extraordinary struggle that emerged took the spectators' breath away, while the competition, which ended 2-2 in normal time, went to extra time. In extra time, Argentina reflected its experience and physical strength on the field and became the winning side with the goal it found, and successfully emerged from the group stages.

Looking at the general appearance of the tournament, if the players finish the tournament with the same number of goals, FIFA's assist criteria and minutes played stand out as determining factors in determining the number of goals. In the current situation, although Mbappé is in an advantageous position in technical average with the assists he made alongside the goals he scored, Messi's ineffectiveness in the attack can change this situation at any moment. Goal machines like Erling Haaland and Harry Kane can also rejoin the peak race with increasing goal numbers in the elimination rounds. With the three points taken from this difficult and wearing match, Argentina succeeded in writing its name in the Round of 16 to the upper round. In Argentina, which continues to maintain its undefeated title and play for the summit, Head Coach Lionel Scaloni's tactical changes directly affected the performance of the players, and the substitutes who entered the game breathed a sigh of relief into the match.

Lionel Messi is a candidate to be remembered as one of the best players not only of his own period but also in football history with the high performance he has shown on the World Cup fields throughout his career. Keeping the nets vibrating uninterruptedly in the tournaments he has played from 2006 to the present has gone down in history as the greatest proof of how effective and consistent he is in tournaments at this level. Messi, who carried Argentina, which experienced difficult moments with what they showed in the Cape Verde match, on his back, left the field as the leader of his team and became the hero of the match. Argentina, with this difficult victory giving strength, aims to continue on its way without compromising its championship candidacy in the later rounds of the tournament. While Messi is constantly renewing the record book, his recent performances are accepted by football fans as a unique legacy of the World Cup, and every match is engraved in memories as a legend. This match revealed once again the emotional intensity and competitiveness within football, rather than just determining a score.