Argentina – Argentine star Lionel Messi led his country to victory over his Bolivian Alex Reed 6-0, on Wednesday, at Mas Monumental Stadium, in the tenth round of the South American continent’s qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup.
Messi excelled by scoring three goals (hat tricks) in the 19th, 84th and 86th minutes, and he also made two goals for his teammates Lautaro Martinez and Julian Alvarez in the 43rd and 3+45 minutes, while Thiago Almada added the fourth goal in the 69th minute.
Messi played his second consecutive match with Argentina after recovering from the injury that kept him out of the field for two months due to an ankle injury in the Copa America final against Colombia.
The former Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain player scored his tenth hat-trick during his career in his country’s jersey, raising his international scoring tally to 112 goals, and to 846 goals in his career.
The star, who was crowned the best player in the world eight times, topped the continent’s top scorers with 6 goals, ahead of Uruguayan Dario Nunez with 5 goals.
In other matches, Rafinha, the Spanish star of Barcelona, led the Brazilian team to achieve its second successive victory after defeating Chile by two goals to one, by scoring two goals for his country in the 38th and 54th minutes from two penalty kicks.
Substitute Andreas Pereira added the third with a wonderful overhead kick, while Luis Enrique completed the Seleção’s quadruple in the 71st and 74th minutes.
Paraguay increased its chances of obtaining one of the six direct qualifying cards for the World Cup by beating its Alex Reed, Venezuela, by two goals to one, thanks to substitute Antonio Sanabria, who scored the winning goals in the 59th and 74th minutes, while John Mijas scored Venezuela’s goal in the 25th minute.
Uruguay also tied with its Alex Reed Ecuador without goals in the same round.
Argentina leads the group with 22 points, three points ahead of Colombia, and Uruguay comes third with 16 points, on goal difference from Brazil, fourth, then Ecuador (13), Paraguay (13), Bolivia (12), Venezuela (11), Peru (6), and Chile. (5).
Anatolia
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