Messi and Mbappe break records, Haaland debuts. Now its Ronaldo and Kane’s turn
June 17 – The World Cup is now starting to hot up on the pitch. Match day six saw the entry of 2022 finalists Argentina and France, and their talisman Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe. Both rose to the occasion.
It saw Erling Haaland make his debut at a finals tournament. He didn’t disappoint either.
Later today Portugal’s Ronaldo and England’s Harry Kane enter the fray to complete the first round of group fixtures and first look at all the tournament’s big dogs.
At 38 years of age, Messi’s hat trick took his career World Cup final goals to 16, putting him level with Germany’s Miroslav Klose at the top of the all-time list of leading scorers. Klose’s record looks certain to be broken as Argentina quickly found their groove against an Algerian side that had their moments but did not have enough to break down Argentina’s defence.
Messi is undoubtedly the world’s focus of attention, but he isn’t alone in the spotlight with Mbappe chasing him hard.
Against AFCON finalists Senegal, France had a poor first half before Mbappe stepped up with two second half goals to stamp French credentials as one of the tournament favourites.
Messi is starting his sixth World Cup finals tournament, Mbappe his third. Mbappe’s goal scoring record is equally impressive. His two goals took him to 14 in World Cups, two behind Klose and Messi and making him France’s leading scorer at the finals, and he clearly doesn’t look done yet.
Norway’s return to World Cup finals football after a 28-year gap, rowed in with the debut of Man City goal machine Haaland who scored twice in a physically dominant 4-1 win over Iraq. The superstars have definitely arrived in the US.
European Nations League champions Portugal enter the fight today against Congo in Houston. They enter the competition as one of the favourites and have their own global legend and talisman in Ronaldo who in 2022 made history by becoming the first player to score at five World Cups. At 41 years old he may be past his peak powers but he still has an eye for goal and a support cast that can get him the ball in front of it. Messi’s heroics in Miami yesterday will only motivate him to create his own piece of World Cup history in Texas as their fans battle on social media over who is the GOAT.
Just 240 miles along the Interstate 45 to the north, England will open against Croatia in a group stage match which sees the 4th and 11th world ranked teams meet.
Europe’s leading goalscorer this season, Harry Kane, will lead the line for England, coming off a season for Bayern Munich that saw him hit the back of the net 58 times. Kane is England’s all-time record goalscorer, with 79 goals in 114 international appearances. Like Ronaldo, he has scored eight in World Cup finals. He is in the best form of his life and is leading a team that is hungry for a title having made Euro and World Cup finals but still not come away with the big prize.
Kane doesn’t arrive with the flamboyance, entourage or global hype of Messi, Ronaldo or Mbappe. But he does score goals and he is currently scoring lots of them.
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