Argentina celebrate midfielder Giovani Lo Celso’s goal. Photo: AFP <\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/p>\n
Lionel Messi came off the bench to score his sixth goal of the tournament as Argentina warmed up for their World Cup knockout match with Cape Verde by beating Jordan 3-1 on Saturday.<\/p>\n
The ageless Messi tops the scoring charts in North America as the tournament heads into the last 32.<\/p>\n
Cape Verde’s players will be wondering how they can stop Messi when the debutants ranked 67 face the champions on July 3 in Miami.<\/p>\n
With qualification already in the bag, Messi started on the bench but came on after an hour in Texas to huge cheers to get his side’s third with a free-kick.<\/p>\n
Argentina finished emphatically top of Group J with maximum points after also beating Algeria 3-0 and defeating Austria 2-0, all those goals coming from Messi.<\/p>\n
The holders and their 39-year-old talisman look formidable, albeit in one of the weaker groups.<\/p>\n
Coach Lionel\u00a0Scaloni\u00a0said Messi could have played the full game.<\/p>\n
“But he chose to let his teammates have minutes, he chose to think about what’s coming, and that speaks volume about him,” he said.<\/p>\n
Giovani Lo Celso, who scored Argentina’s first of the evening, said it had been almost the perfect group stage.<\/p>\n
“We knew we had very tough opponents, that it wasn’t going to be easy,” he said.<\/p>\n
“It’s a pity about the goal we conceded today, we would’ve liked to end with a clean sheet.<\/p>\n
“Still, I think it was a very good group stage. Now the most important part begins.<\/p>\n
“From now on, it’s about turning the page and thinking about Cape Verde, who will be a very tough opponent.”<\/p>\n
Fans demand Messi\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n A much-changed Argentina scored in the first half through a Lo Celso free-kick and a penalty by\u00a0Lautaro\u00a0Martinez.<\/p>\n Mousa\u00a0Al-Tamari pulled one back 10 minutes after half-time for Jordan, whose first World Cup was already over.<\/p>\n Scaloni\u00a0made nine changes, retaining only goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez and forward\u00a0Lautaro\u00a0Martinez from the Austria win.<\/p>\n Jordan were already eliminated after defeats to Algeria and Austria, rendering the match inconsequential in terms of the tournament.<\/p>\n But competition in the Argentina squad is fierce and\u00a0Scaloniwanted his side to join France and co-hosts Mexico with nine points.<\/p>\n Argentina also wanted to make a statement ahead of the meeting with surprise packages Cape Verde as they attempt to become the first team since Brazil in 1962 to win back-to-back World Cups.<\/p>\n The home of the Dallas Cowboys was packed with Argentina fans and their team dominated from the off.<\/p>\n Lo Celso got the party started, bending in a free-kick on 19 minutes that goalkeeper\u00a0Yazeed\u00a0Abulaila\u00a0got nowhere near having inexplicably moved in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n A relaxed-looking Messi smiled broadly from the sidelines.<\/p>\n Soon after the champions doubled their lead when Martinez rifled in a penalty following a VAR review when Marcos\u00a0Senesiappeared to be kicked in the face as he went for a diving header.<\/p>\n Minutes after half-time the crowd began calling for their captain Messi, the leading scorer in World Cup history.<\/p>\n As he stripped off to come on, Tamari stabbed in from close range to pull a goal back and stun much of the stadium.<\/p>\n The match felt like a friendly after that, before Messi bent in a tame free-kick with 10 minutes left to go with his hat-trick against Algeria and brace versus Austria.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Argentina celebrate midfielder Giovani Lo Celso’s goal. Photo: AFP ATLANTA: Lionel Messi came off the bench to score his sixth goal of the tournament as Argentina warmed up for their World Cup knockout match with Cape Verde by beating Jordan 3-1 on Saturday. The ageless Messi tops the scoring charts in North America as the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.tribune.com.pk\/media\/images\/img-79971782662565-0\/img-79971782662565-0-640x480.webp","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t