{"id":1460133,"date":"2026-06-19T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/?post_type=features&p=1460133"},"modified":"2026-06-19T15:30:52","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T14:30:52","slug":"world-cup-team-of-the-round-matchday-one","status":"publish","type":"features","link":"https:\/\/www.squawka.com\/en\/features\/world-cup-team-of-the-round-matchday-one\/","title":{"rendered":"World Cup Team of the Round Matchday One: Messi steals the show in opening games"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

With every team now having played once at the 2026 World Cup, we’ve picked out our stat-led team of the round for the opening matches with Argentina’s Lionel Messi unsurprisingly leading the way.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We’ve limited our team to one player per team, but with a handful of smaller teams shining against the bigger boys while a few of the biggest names in the tournament were able to get off to a strong start, here’s our pick of the bunch from the first game of the tournament.<\/p>\n\n\n

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