Messi’s Argentina avoid biggest World Cup shock as Cape Verde score stunning goal but go out
Lionel Messi and Argentina avoided one of the biggest ever World Cup knockout shocks by overcoming Cape Verde 3-2 in extra time of a jaw-dropping game.
Cape Verde, a collection of 10 islands off the west coast of Africa, which has a population of around 525,000 are the smallest nation to ever make the knockout stage of the World Cup. Ranked No 67 in the tournament, they surprised Spain in their opener, holding on for a 0-0 and then drew with Uruguay and Saudi Arabia to reach the last 32.
And Argentina, winners of the previous World Cup, appeared set to coast into the last 16 after Messi became the first player ever to score 20 World Cup goals with his seventh of this tournament on 29 minutes.
Lionel Scaloni’s side continued to dominate possession and chances but were stunned when Deroy Duarte beat Emi Martinez. The goal was assisted by Cape Verde’s captain Ryan Mendes, who started the game a week after it was reported he is under investigation by police in New Zealand over an alleged rape.
Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who had earned praise for his tournament performances denied Messi in a on-on-one to keep it at 1-1 and then scrambled across his goal to palm the ball away after the Argentina captain tried to catch him out as he set up his wall at a free kick.
Argentina were then denied a penalty when the ball struck the arm of Cape Verde’s Pico Lopes as the ball had hit his head first and Vozinha then reacted well to save a deflected Messi free kick to send it into extra time.
Extra time followed a similar pattern with Argentina taking the lead again through Lisandro Martinez only for Cape Verde to respond with a truly extraordinary strike from Sidny Lopes Cabral. The left back whipping the ball with his right foot into the top corner before leaving the field and climbing into the stands to celebrate amid pandemonium at the Hard Rock Stadium.
In another incredible World Cup 2026 match, Cristian Romero headed on Messi’s corner via a deflection from Diney Borges on 111 minutes to win it as Argentina held out under late Cape Verde pressure.
Does Cape Verde scare diminish Argentina’s prospects?
An island of 525k against 46m. The three-time world champions and current holders against World Cup debutantes. The greatest player of all-time against an out-of-contract goalkeeper from the Portuguese second division. Cape Verde couldn’t, could they? It was Argentina. It was Messi. It was Miami, a second home to him, a stadium 90% full of Argentines too.
And yet Cape Verde, remarkably, gave them a genuine and creditable scare. The most improbable upset in World Cup history seemed on and it, understandably, raises questions about Argentina.
They relaxed into a potential humiliation. They dared it to happen. In the end only an own-goal was the difference in this 3-2 win. And even after it came, Argentina needed Dibu Martinez to make his best save so far this tournament. They needed the offside flag to go up and for Dailon Livramento to miss from point-blank range. It made you wonder: what would France do to this Argentina side? How would they cope?
– James Horncastle
Was this the best goal of the World Cup so far?
This has been a World Cup of great goals. Pupils have dilated. Jaws have dropped. However, I don’t recall one producing the same intake of breath as Sidny Cabral’s in extra-time.
Cape Verde looked done. They got to extra-time but when Lisandro Martinez put Argentina in front again, nobody saw another Cape Verde goal coming. Not Dibu Martinez. Not Alexis MacAllister who tried to close Cabral down on the right-side of the Argentina penalty area. Cabral skipped past one World Cup winner.
Everyone at the Hard Rock expected a cross. Cabral instead had the audacity to go for goal. His shot arced through the indigo sky. It looked like going over. But it dipped and settled in the far corner. The Cape Verde bench spilled onto the pitch. Cabral jumped into the stands, as if electrified by what he’d done.
The Argentine players stood shell-shocked. They turned to each other. Blank stares on their faces. For the first time, they looked truly scared. The fear was real. Cabral had inflicted a wound on the world champions. One they didn’t know whether they’d be able to recover from.
– James Horncastle
Can Messi break the World Cup goals record?
Lisandro Martinez, stood a few yards inside Cape Verde’s half, looked up and saw Messi making a run.
From that moment, there was only one place the defender’s pass was going to be delivered to. So, as it came over the top of Messi’s shoulder and he controlled it beautifully with his left foot, there was a sense of inevitability about what would happen next.
With Messi’s next touch of the ball, it was struck past Vozinha and into the back of the net. More significantly, however, was that it further extended his lead over Kylian Mbappe as the World Cup’s greatest-ever goal scorer, now on 20 goals, and took him one past the French striker’s six for the tournament.
The 39-year-old is once again leading from the front, having scored seven times in the World Cup, and is even closing down Just Fontaine’s all-time record of 13 goals in a single tournament.
Fontaine, a former French international, set this record at the 1958 World Cup and managed it in only six matches.
If they reach the final, Messi will have four more games to chase down Fontaine’s long-standing tally. It seems unattainable, but can you write off arguably the greatest player to ever kick a soccer ball?
– Dan Sheldon