\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t Argentina men\u2019s national football team captain Lionel Messi said the team \u201calways goes out to win\u201d regardless of the opponent, and admitted he\u2019s thrilled to have secured qualification to the World Cup 2026 knockout stages as it means \u201ca quieter week\u201d for the squad.<\/p>\n
The Albiceceste beat Austria 2-0 in its second group stage match of the tournament, enough to see them off to the round of 32, where they\u2019ll face off against the second-placed team in Group H \u2014 currently Uruguay.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m very happy for the win,\u201d said Messi. \u201cWe knew it was going to be a tough match, where we couldn\u2019t allow ourselves to relax at any point because they work very hard.<\/p>\n
The Argentine captain said \u201cnobody is gifting anything\u201d in this World Cup, which has seen favorites like Brazil, Spain and Portugal drop points to underdogs such as Morocco, Cape Verde and RD Congo respectively.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis match was like that, it was very hard fought and we struggled to play our game,\u201d added Messi. \u201cThe key was to secure qualification. We\u2019re Argentina and we always go out to win against anyone, but we knew it wasn\u2019t going to be easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if he enjoys what\u2019s likely to be his last World Cup appearance as something special, the star from Rosario, Santa Fe, said everyone in the Argentina camp does.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis whole team goes through each day knowing it\u2019s special,\u201d he said. \u201cand it has been like that since it started.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said whenever they get to meet at training camp, they enjoy being together, competing, and seeing the fans cheer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been able to give [the fans] some special moments,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ll try to keep it going. We go step by step, this is long and difficult, and we prepare for each game regardless of who\u2019s the rival and where we\u2019re playing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scaloni: \u2018If kids feel identified with this team, that\u2019s great\u2019 For his part, Argentina head coach Scaloni looked pleased with the result, but cautious not to get ahead of himself as usual.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe last goal settled the match at a tricky point, and gave us some peace of mind,\u201d he said at the press conference. \u201cI\u2019m happy with Messi\u2019s goal, and for the team. We showed that when we need to dig in our heels, we do.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said that when Austria took the ball away from his team, they endured it and gave credit to his players for \u201cknowing what needed to be done at every turn,\u201d and that securing qualification \u201clooked easy on paper, but it hasn\u2019t been.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked if it\u2019s time to get hopeful about a title, Scaloni refused to give in to it and simply said the fans \u201care just thrilled to see the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think if kids feel identified with this team, that\u2019s great. For them to see how they play, how they give it their all, and that\u2019s the biggest thing they can take from it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Scaloni insisted that qualification \u201cchanges nothing\u201d for him and his staff ahead of the last group-stage game against Jordan, set for Saturday at 11 p.m. Argentina time.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all would\u2019ve accepted these results beforehand, but we\u2019ll analyze the situation,\u201d he said. \u201cThe idea is always to have everyone play; they all deserve it, and if the game allows for it, we\u2019ll do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cover image: Seleccion Argentina Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Argentina men\u2019s national football team captain Lionel Messi said the team \u201calways goes out to win\u201d regardless of the opponent, and admitted he\u2019s thrilled to have secured qualification to the World Cup 2026 knockout stages as it means \u201ca quieter week\u201d for the squad. The Albiceceste beat Austria 2-0 in its second group stage match […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":80369,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,66,1373,5309,67,339],"tags":[5307,1368,1371,5308,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-80368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-football","category-lionel-messi","category-lionel-scaloni","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-lionel-scaloni","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/80369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}