This guide was first published on 8 June 2026 as a pre-tournament preview asking whether Argentina could defend their title. It was rewritten in October 2026 with what actually happened.
Argentina came to North America as world champions, with the 2024 Copa América added since Qatar. The question was whether they could do what only Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962) had done and win back-to-back titles. They came within one goal of it: seven straight wins, then a 1–0 defeat to Spain after extra time in the final at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.
Group J: a perfect nine points
Three games, three wins, eight goals scored and one conceded. Lionel Messi opened with a hat-trick against Algeria (3–0 in Kansas City), scored both goals against Austria (2–0 in Arlington) and added the third in a 3–1 win over Jordan, after Giovani Lo Celso and a Lautaro Martínez penalty. Six goals in three matches at his sixth World Cup settled the pre-tournament debate about how much he still had to give.
Round of 32 to the semi-finals: winning without dominating
The knockouts were far harder than the group. In Miami, Cape Verde — who had held Spain 0–0 in their opening game — equalised twice: Messi scored first, Deroy Duarte levelled, Lisandro Martínez restored the lead in extra time and Sidny Lopes Cabral levelled again before an own goal by Diney settled it 3–2. Against Egypt in Atlanta, Argentina were 2–0 down until the 79th minute after goals from Yasser Ibrahim and Mostafa Ziko; Cristian Romero, Messi and Enzo Fernández, in the 90th minute, turned it into a 3–2 win.
In the quarter-final in Kansas City, Alexis Mac Allister scored after ten minutes, Dan Ndoye equalised for Switzerland in the 67th, and extra time decided it: Julián Álvarez in the 112th minute and Lautaro Martínez in the 120th for 3–1. In the semi-final in Atlanta, Anthony Gordon put England ahead in the 55th minute and Argentina came from behind again late on — Enzo Fernández in the 85th, Lautaro in the 90th — to win 2–1.
Before the tournament, the worry was whether an ageing core could cope with a fifth knockout round. Argentina reached the final with two extra-time games and two late comebacks behind them; they survived every test until the last one.
The final
It was only the second World Cup meeting between Spain and Argentina; the first, in 1966, ended 2–1 to Argentina. On 19 July in New Jersey the 90 minutes finished goalless. Ferran Torres scored in the 106th minute, and Spain — who conceded a single goal in the whole tournament — held on for 1–0. It was Argentina's only defeat of the World Cup and gave Spain their second title, sixteen years after the first.
Messi in numbers
- 8 goals at the 2026 World Cup, second only to Kylian Mbappé's 10
- 21 World Cup goals in total, five more than Miroslav Klose's old record of 16 — though Mbappé (22) passed both in the same tournament
- 34 World Cup matches across six tournaments (2006–2026), the all-time record
- Around him: Lautaro Martínez scored 3, Enzo Fernández 2
What comes next
Argentina already have a place at the 2030 World Cup as one of the three South American centenary hosts. They will still play the CONMEBOL qualifiers, but without a place at stake. Every match, goal and line-up from 2026 remains archived on the Argentina team page and on the Argentina vs Spain head-to-head page.