Messi off the bench and into the record books as Argentina sign off with a 3-0 win over Iceland
Lionel Messi came off the bench to score and break a 69-year Argentina goalscoring record as the holders beat Iceland 3-0 in their final World Cup warm-up.
Jun 10, 2026
Argentina finished their World Cup preparation the way the defending champions would have wanted, brushing Iceland aside 3-0 in Auburn, Alabama overnight. It was their last hit-out before the tournament, and the headline was the man who came off the bench: Lionel Messi, 38 now, rolled in a penalty in what is almost certainly his farewell World Cup send-off.
Valentin Barco set the tone inside the opening 10 minutes. The young left-back cut inside and drove a low left-footed shot past Elias Olafsson, the kind of early goal that lets a side settle and keep the ball, which Argentina duly did. They finished with 63 percent of possession and out-shot Iceland 15 to 6, never letting the friendly turn into the scrap Iceland would have wanted.
Messi off the bench, and a record
Lionel Scaloni held Messi back until the 70th minute, and it took the captain only a couple of minutes to make his mark. A foul on Lautaro Martinez gave Argentina a penalty, and Messi sent the ball to the top corner, beyond the goalkeeper’s reach, to make it 2-0. The goal carried a footnote: at 38, it made him the oldest player ever to score for Argentina, breaking a mark Angel Labruna had held since 1957.
He had a hand in the third as well. A neat one-two with Rodrigo De Paul opened Iceland up in the closing stages, and when the ball was squared across the six-yard box, Thiago Almada was there to finish first time. Three goals, a clean sheet, and a cameo from Messi that did exactly what a final friendly is for.
What it means before Algeria
This was a second straight win to close out the warm-ups, and Argentina will take the rhythm into a tournament they arrive at as holders. They open in Group J against Algeria in Kansas City on 16 June, with Austria and Jordan to follow. Algeria are not to be taken lightly, having beaten the Netherlands in their own send-off, but on this evidence Scaloni’s side look settled, and the questions around them are the good kind: who starts, not whether they are ready.
The bigger story sits on the bench until it does not. Messi managed his minutes all through the warm-ups, saving himself for the games that count, and Argentina look built to carry him to them. If this really is his last World Cup, the send-off he wants starts in Kansas City.