Argentina Begins World Cup Title Defense Against Algeria

Kansas City. On Wednesday, Argentina will begin their World Cup title defense by playing against Algeria in Kansas City. Lionel Messi is preparing to make more history in FIFA's biggest competition through this match.

Lionel Scaloni's team, which defeated France in the 2022 World Cup final, is entering the 2026 competition as a major contender. However, before that, they must navigate Group 'J', where Austria and Jordan are their other two competitors.

The player, who will turn 39 next week, has played 26 World Cup matches, more than any other player. If he plays this match, Messi will become the first player in history to participate in 6 World Cup editions. However, Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal may achieve this feat in a few hours.

Coach Scaloni does not want to rely solely on Messi. Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez are two other key attackers in excellent form who will advance Argentina in their 19th World Cup.

In the South American qualifiers, when Scaloni's team secured the top spot for the first time since 2014, both Alvarez and Martinez scored 4 goals each, supporting Messi's 8 goals. Their goal-scoring ability helped Argentina participate in this competition for the 14th consecutive time. This is the third longest continuous streak after Brazil (23) and Germany (19).

However, qualifying for the 'La Albiceleste' is not enough. They hope to become the third male team to win two consecutive World Cups, after Italy (1934-1938) and Brazil (1958-1962).

Only Brazil (5 titles), Germany, and Italy (4 titles each) have won the trophy more times than Argentina (3) in the men's World Cup. However, since Argentina won their first title in 1978, no nation has lifted the World Cup trophy as many times as them, i.e., three times.

Argentina expects to avoid early setbacks. With the exception of 2002, they have passed the first round in 13 of their last 14 participations. The last time they failed to score in their opening match was in 1990, when they lost 1-0 to Cameroon.

However, Algeria cannot be underestimated. In this edition's African qualifiers, only Gambia (27) and Ivory Coast (25) scored more goals than Vladimir Petković's team (24 goals in 10 matches).

At the center of their success was Mohamed Amoura, who became the top scorer of the qualifying round with 10 goals in 10 matches. However, the only Algerian players to score more than one goal in the campaign were this Wolfsburg striker and Baghdad Bounedjah (3 goals).

However, the excessive reliance on Amoura may be a cause for concern for coach Petković. He was directly involved in 58 percent of Algeria's 24 goals in the qualifiers, providing 4 assists.

Nevertheless, Amoura's excellent ability in front of goal has led Algeria to the World Cup for the fifth time and for the first time since 2014. That edition in Brazil was their only opportunity to pass the first round. 

Their fortunes on the world stage are not as good. Algeria has won only one of their last 10 World Cup matches (a 4-2 victory over South Korea 12 years ago). Their other two wins before that came in 1982.

On the other hand, in a total of 13 matches played, Algeria has kept a clean sheet in only one game. That was a goalless draw against England in 2010.

• Argentina vs Algeria: Head-to-Head 

This will be the first meeting between these two in the World Cup. However, in the only friendly match between them in June 2007, Argentina won.

In that match at Camp Nou in Barcelona, Messi scored his first international 'brace' for Argentina, i.e., two goals in one game, leading the team to a 4-3 victory.

Algeria's record against South American teams in the World Cup is balanced, with one win (3-2 against Chile in 1982) and one loss (1-0 against Brazil in 1986).

In contrast, since losing 1-0 to Cameroon in 1990, Argentina has won all of their last 6 matches against African opponents. Five of those wins were against Nigeria.

Argentina and Algeria Squads

• Argentina: Juan Musso, Geronimo Rulli, Emiliano Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico, Gonzalo Montiel, Lisandro Martinez, Cristian Romero, Nicolas Otamendi, Facundo Medina, Nahuel Molina, Leandro Paredes, Rodrigo De Paul, Valentin Barco, Giovanni Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Thiago Almada, Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernandez, Julian Alvarez, Lionel Messi, Nico Gonzalez, Giuliano Simeone, Nico Paz, Jose Manuel Lopez, Lautaro Martinez.
• Algeria: Melvin Mastil, Oussama Benbot, Loucif Zidane, Aissa Mandi, Achraf Abada, Mohamed Amine Touga, Zinedine Belled, Jaouen Hadjam, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Rafik Belghali, Ramy Bensebaini, Samir Chergui, Ramiz Zerrouki, Houssem Aouar, Fares Chaibi, Hicham Boudaoui, Nabil Bentaleb, Ibrahim Maza, Yacine Titraoui, Riyad Mahrez, Amine Gouiri, Anis Hadj Moussa, Nadir Benbouali, Mohamed Amoura, Adil Boulbina, Fares Ghezzem.