Argentina beat Austria 2-0 to secure their place in the 2026 World Cup knockout stages.
Lionel Messi was the star of the show, scoring both goals to become the all-time leading scorer in World Cups, beating Miroslav Klose’s record. That came despite Messi missing a penalty in the eighth minute, which would have seen him break the record earlier.
In bagging his brace, Messi became only the second player to score four or more goals in three different men’s World Cups, and the third to score in six consecutive matches in the tournament.
Argentina vs Austria analysis:
Austria’s hybrid press
Ralf Rangnick is known for his aggressive pressing ideas. After all, he famous stated: “A little bit of pressing is like a little bit of pregnant.”
This does relate more to his counter-pressing ideas, looking to regain possession quickly after losing the ball. But it also applies to his out-of-possession ideas.
Rangnick sets Austria up in a 4-4-2 midblock, but the idea is to transition into a man-for-man press once the trigger is met.
A clear trigger against Argentina was a backwards pass. Marcel Sabitzer would then jump to pressure Cristian Romero, forcing Konrad Lainer to jump onto Nahuel Molina at right-back.
Austria then had Paul Wanner looking to block access to Alexis Mac Allister at the base of the midfield. Nicolas Seiwald and Xaver Schlager were ready to jump to Enzo Fernandez and Rodrigo De Paul.
But Argentina’s diamong dormation caused issues for Austria. Thiago Almada roamed inside to create a four-on-three in midfield aloongside Mac Allister, De Paul and Fernandez.
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Argentina activations
Lionel Scaloni has built an international side with great detail, a team who are constantly attuned to combinations and connections around the ball.
Players’ body orientations create central overloads in the tightest of spaces. This allows Argetnina to find solutions through the middle, constantly activating defensive responses.
A brilliant example of this comes in how Argentina work the ball from side to side. They rarely do so with long switches of play, or U-shaped circulation.
Instead, they constantly look to progress through the pressure points for the opposition team. This activates their defensive behaviours and forces the opponents into decisions.
As a result, opposition players are dragged towards the ball in the centre of the pitch, making their shape more narrow. It gives them less time to shuffle from side to side, leaving gaps in their defensive scheme for Argentina to exploit.
Argentina’s narrow 4-1-2-1-2 shape helps them constantly provoke these behaviours, with midfielders rotation positions and taking up in-between roles. Fernandez and De Paul are key examples.
They operated between the winger and central midfielder in Austria’s 4-4-2, allow them to access the space behind the front two.
This became even tougher for Austria to deal with once you added in the Messi factor. He has the freedom to drift and roam whereber he likes, often taking up similar in-between positions to confuse markers.
Messi’s ghostly presence
Messi never seizes to amaze. As arguably the best player ever, he should have constant attention from multiple opposition players. However, the soon-to-be-39-year-old has improved upon a new skillset to help him continue to dominate at the top level. He’s perfected the art of ghosting.
The Argentinian superstar is used to defenders man-marking him, being double or tripled-up on anywhere on the pitch. Argentina’s first goal showcased this ability perfectly, with Messi starting the attack by switching play over to the left.
The move forced Austria to retreat at pace, while Messi opted to hold his run, letting play develop and looking to receive behind the retreating defenders.
Messi was then able to arrive with space on the edge of the are, finishing coolly into the bottom left corner. But this wasn’t the only sign of it.
The Argentinian legend was mixing things up, starting in offside positions, letting the Austria backline retreat and then taking that space in front to receive.
With Argentina now safely through to the knockout stages, Messi could well be given a rest for their final group match. It’ll keep him fresh for the later rounds, so he can continue to impact games as he has been so far.
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