Messi has taken sole top spot on the World Cup top scorers list, with Mbappé second, after clinching the contest with two decisive assists to bring his tally to 8 goals and 4 assists. Mbappé has 8 goals and 3 assists. Messi has also played one more match than Mbappé. The Argentine legend continued to write history as he led his national team to the 2026 World Cup final following a dramatic 2-1 victory over England in the semi-final.
Although the first half saw Lionel Messi lose possession 15 times — the most of any player, ahead of Giuliano Simeoni (8 times) and Elliott Anderson (7 times) — the Argentina captain turned the tide in the second half and completely dominated proceedings. He recorded the most key passes (2), created the most clear-cut chances (2), set up 4 chances in total, touched the ball 7 times inside the opposition penalty area, and completed 9 successful dribbles — the highest figure in the match — to earn the highest player rating of 8.0.
England had taken the lead through Anthony Gordon in the 55th minute, scoring the 118th goal in England's World Cup history across 81 matches, before Argentina hit back powerfully in the closing stages. Messi created the equaliser for teammate Enzo Fernández in the 85th minute — Fernández's second goal of the tournament and Argentina's 170th historically across 95 World Cup matches.
In the 90+2nd minute, Messi provided a second decisive assist for substitute Lautaro Martínez to seal the winning goal and qualification, continuing his remarkable impact as a substitute for the third consecutive match following his contributions against Egypt and Switzerland.
With those two assists, Messi raised his career World Cup assist tally to 12, recording a new legendary milestone of 33 goal contributions (21 goals and 12 assists) across 33 appearances in the tournament. The match also saw Argentina equal the record of 5 goals scored from outside the penalty area in a single edition since 1966, with efforts from Messi (2 goals), Lo Celso, Álvarez, and Fernández.
The comprehensive match statistics reflected Argentina's sweeping superiority: expected goals stood at 1.84 for Argentina versus 0.53 for England; shots totalled 15 (5 on target) for Argentina compared to 5 (2 on target) for England, with a clear advantage in clear-cut chances (3 vs. 1), touches inside the penalty area (28 vs. 7), and possession, which reached 64% for Argentina versus 36% for the Three Lions.