Lionel Messi said Argentina have “many” things to improve after a nail-biting 3-2 win over Cape Verde in extra time Friday night at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, pointing out his team’s shortcomings in the round-of-32 victory.
“Today, we put in a huge effort, as always, playing well and playing badly, just like we always say,” Messi said after the game. “But I think the important thing now is to rest, think about what’s coming next and try to take positives from today’s game. Beyond just qualifying, I think there are positives because we did some good things, and we also need to correct the bad ones, which I think were many today as well.”
Messi opened the scoring with a sublime goal, but Cape Verde struck back to send the game to extra time, when Argentina took the lead only for the island nation to level the score again on a goal-of-the-tournament candidate from Sidny Lopes Cabral.
An own goal by Cape Verde’s Diney Borges from Cristian Romero‘s header gave Argentina the lead for good as they advanced to the round of 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup.
Cape Verde made history in the 2026 World Cup by becoming the smallest nation to reach the knockout round of the tournament. The country’s population of 525,000 inhabitants is fewer than that of each of the 50 U.S. states, with Wyoming the closest with a population of 576,000.
And Messi was full of praise for the 67th-ranked team in the world as he spoke about how Cape Verde frustrated Argentina throughout the match.
“We knew it was going to be a very tough match; this team hadn’t lost to Spain and Uruguay for a reason. We did the hardest part, which was finding the first goal,” Messi said. “We thought that from then on, we would start to find our game and be more relaxed, but it was the complete opposite. We lost the ball, we sat back, we couldn’t pressure them well, and they struck with their strengths. We knew it was going to be difficult; this is a knockout tournament, and nobody gives you anything for free.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be easy at all, and that’s what this World Cup, in particular, is all about. It’s very evenly matched, very complicated, and every game is going to be extremely difficult.”
Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni added during his postgame news conference that he will address the weaknesses of Friday night’s match with the players.
“There is no easy rival. Congratulations to Cape Verde,” Scaloni said. “I will talk to the players about the negative, but we take away the positive, which is we never let our arms down.”
With the victory, Argentina are on the longest winning streak in team history at 11.
Messi also extended his lead as the highest goal scorer in men’s World Cup history with 20 — two ahead of Kylian Mbappé — with his first-half goal and scored in his record eighth straight World Cup game. The Argentina captain now has 12 goals in his past eight World Cup games.
Messi also leads the Golden Boot race at this year’s World Cup with seven goals, one ahead of Mbappé.
Argentina will face Egypt in the round of 16 on Tuesday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
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