Published On 4/7/2026
Argentina qualified for the round of 16 of the World Cup after a hard-fought victory over Cape Verde with a score of 3-2 after extra time, but the defending champion emerged from the confrontation surrounded by more question marks after the team participating for the first time in the tournament pushed it to the brink of elimination.
The “Sharks” team succeeded in equalizing twice after falling behind in the score, revealing gaps in the ranks of the Argentine national team, before the match was decided by an own goal scored by Denny Borges, the Cape Verdean player, by mistake in his team’s goal following a header from defender Cristian Romero.
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Coach Lionel Scaloni had warned of the danger of the Cape Verdean national team after drawing with Spain and Uruguay in the group stage, but few observers expected this amount of resistance from a team participating in its first participation in the World Cup finals.
After a group stage that seemed almost perfect and witnessed victories over Algeria 3-0, Austria 2-0, and Jordan 3-1, this difficult victory is likely to lead to increased scrutiny of Argentina’s performance before its expected confrontation with Egypt in the round of 16 in Atlanta on Tuesday.
Questions remained about the level of competitors that Argentina has faced so far, and these are concerns that have accompanied the team since the preparation period for the tournament, as Iceland was, last June, the first European competitor that the team has faced since the World Cup in 2022, and its back line had not been subjected to a real test before until the match with Cape Verde.
Marcelo Gallardo, the former coach of the River Plate team who participated in the World Cup in 1998 and 2002, believed that this confrontation might represent a warning bell for the Argentine national team.
“It’s good that this is happening now. There will be a reaction, and there has to be a reaction,” he told ESPN.
Messi: We finished the match exhausted
Lionel Messi, who scored his twentieth goal in the World Cup finals during the first half to increase his record, admitted that the match physically exhausted the Argentine players, noting that the team struggled to regain the ball in advanced areas of the field.
The 39-year-old leader said, “They had possession of the ball and forced us to run because we could not put pressure on them. We did not apply pressure as required, and the distances between our lines were very large.”
For his part, Scaloni focused on the fighting spirit that his team showed to overcome this ordeal, repeating what he said before the match that the World Cup does not know easy confrontations.
The Argentine coach said, “There is always room for improvement, but the most important thing is that the team rose to the challenge in difficult times. We can debate whether we played well or not, but this team never backs down from taking responsibility and managing matches.”
Two defenders returning from injury played a decisive role in saving Argentina and keeping it in the tournament.
Lisandro Martinez, who recovered from a torn anterior cruciate ligament he suffered in early 2025, scored the second goal for Argentina, while Romero played an influential role in the winning goal after returning from knee problems that kept him out of action for a period during the tournament.
Argentina will resume training in Miami today, Saturday, in preparation for its anticipated confrontation with Egypt in the round of 16.
