Argentina national team captain Lionel Messi said that Argentina has a lot to fix after the difficult 3-2 victory over Cape Verde after extra time at the “Hard Rock“ stadium in Miami, Florida in the 1/16 finals of the World Cup, BTA reported.
“Today we made a huge effort, as always, playing at times well, at times badly“, Messi said after the match. “But I think the important thing now is to rest, to think about what is ahead and to try to extract the positives from today's match. Apart from the qualification, I think there are positives because we did some good things and we also have to fix the bad ones, which I think were a lot today.“
Messi opened the scoring with a magnificent goal, but Cape Verde hit back with a goal from Ludogorets player Deroy Duarte to send the match into extra time, when Argentina took the lead, but the island nation equalized again with a goal from Sidney Lopez Cabral. An own goal by Cape Verde's Dinei Borges after a header from Cristian Romero gave Argentina the lead for good, as they qualified for the round of 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup.
Cape Verde made World Cup history in 2026 by becoming the smallest nation to reach the knockout stage of the tournament. The country's population of 525,000 is smaller than that of any of the 50 US states, with Wyoming coming in second with 576,000.
And Messi was full of praise for the Cape Verdean team.
“We knew it would be a very difficult game; this team didn't lose to Spain or Uruguay and for good reason. We did the hardest part, which was finding the first goal,“ said Messi. “We thought that from that moment on we would start to open up our game and be more relaxed, but it turned out to be the opposite. We lost the ball, we were backing away, we couldn't press them well, and they hit with their strengths. We knew it would be difficult; "It's a knockout tournament and nobody gives you anything for free," Messi added.
The win gave Argentina their longest winning streak in team history, 11.
Messi also extended his lead as the all-time leading scorer in men's World Cup history to 20 - two ahead of Kylian Mbappe - with his first-half goal and scoring in his record eighth consecutive World Cup match. The Argentina captain now has 12 goals in his last eight World Cup matches.
Messi also leads the race for top scorer at this year's World Cup with seven goals, one ahead of Mbappe.
Argentina will face Egypt in the round of 16 on Tuesday at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.