The Magician Is Still Going Strong: La Pulga’s Historic Hat-Trick Powers Defending Champions Argentina Past Algeria

Walking onto the field as champions of the previous tournament is a massive pressure, but definitely not on the shoulders of the Argentineans, who didn’t let down their traveling supporters. With a convincing victory by score of 3-0 against Algeria, the team led by Lionel Scaloni launched their FIFA World Cup title defense in style.

Although the whole team demonstrated top professionalism and teamwork on the field, it was the veteran midfielder that was expected to outshine others.

Even at the age of 38 years, Lionel Messi still keeps on setting new heights when it comes to football greatness. The Argentinian team captain delivered a performance of sheer brilliance, bagging himself a first ever World Cup hat-trick. The goals scored by him in the 17th, 60th, and 76th minutes were indeed classic demonstrations of his amazing goal-scoring and impeccable positioning skills. It is not only another feat in Messi's career but rather another great achievement in the history of football.

It is now official that Messi has become equal to German legend Miroslav Klose, with both forwards boasting 16 World Cup goals to their name. This was made possible with the help of the unrelenting support provided by the team midfielder Alexis Mac Allister and the rock-solid defense by Cristian Romero and his fellow teammate Emiliano Martinez.

Aside from the incredible talent of Messi, another factor that made the Argentina versus Algeria game worth watching was the history of football and its future stars.

In the 79th minute, Argentina substituted Nico Paz into the game and gave him his first appearance for the country in the World Cup. This is a very meaningful event, especially since Nico was able to follow in the footsteps of his father Pablo Paz, who also had the honor to play in the national team.

However, for Algeria, they managed to give a debut appearance in the World Cup for their goalkeeper Luca Zidane, who happens to be the son of one of the most respected footballers ever, Zinedine Zidane, and despite choosing to represent Algeria, he had to face the fierce attacking skills of Lionel Messi himself.

Credit to them, Algeria did play a style of organized and positive football. However, the Algerian team, led by Riyad Mahrez, almost scored on the counter attack through Farès Chaïbi, but it was eventually disallowed for being in an offside position.

Unfortunately for them, they could not do anything against the perfectly fine-tuned machine that is Scaloni's Argentina. The South American team, powered by Messi’s individual excellence, will now advance into the next round, and the world is definitely scared.

Sportscape feels that Argentina has started their journey to defend the cup pretty well but the FIFA World Cup is one of a kind event where the most unexpected and unpredictable things happens so we have to watch and see how the team progresses from here on.