Lionel Messi broke another World Cup record by beating Argentina in the quarter-finals

Lionel Messi may not have been on the score sheet for Argentina’s quarter-final win over Switzerland on Saturday, but he still managed to set a record as the competition’s all-time leading assister.

The 39-year-old set up Alexis Mac Allister’s goal in the 3-1 win with a corner that marked his 10th assist in a World Cup match.

The score puts the Argentina captain ahead of West Germany star Fritz Walter, who has nine points. Some sources claim that Brazilian great Pelé contributed nine assists, but his total is widely disputed.

Interestingly, each of Messi’s assists was given to a different scorer.

Messi milestones

Lionel Messi now has 10 goals to his name at the 2026 World Cup. | Eric W. Rascoe/Sports Illustrated

The match in Kansas City was another wild knockout match for Argentina, with Lionel Scaloni’s side having earlier survived the scares of Cape Verde and Egypt to reach the last eight.

Messi crossed for Mac Allister to open the scoring after 10 minutes, but Switzerland fought back in the second half to equalize through Dan Ndoye. Brilu Embolo’s controversial second yellow card, the result of FIFA’s new “mistaken identity” rule, left the European team without a player for the rest of the match. Argentina still needed extra time to go on top and eventually took the lead thanks to a stunning strike from Julián Álvarez before Lautaro Martínez scored late on.

A win for Argentina will set up a meeting with England in the semi-finals on Wednesday 15 July.

The victory marked the first time at this World Cup that Messi failed to score against Argentina and the captain failed to add to his eight goals in the Golden Boot race. However, it was by no means a bad night for Messi, with the Inter Miami star still creating the most chances in the game (six), taking the most shots (four) and taking the most dribbles (five), as well as making the crucial assist.

“He’s like a machine,” Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni said of Messi after the match. “Those who don’t know him well might be surprised, and at 39, some people might think he’s not up to the task. But I’ve said it before, as long as he wants to be the best – and I’m not saying that because I’m coaching him – but because if he wants to continue, he will continue to be the best.”

In addition to becoming the all-time assist leader in World Cup history, Messi also reached another milestone on Saturday, taking his total number of goals for the tournament to 10 (eight goals, two assists).

By reaching double figures in goals and assists in 2022, he becomes only the second player (after France’s Kylian Mbappe) to score 10 or more goals and assists in consecutive World Cup tournaments.

Best World Cup assistants of all time

Diego Maradona ranks second in assists since 1966. Photo Agency/Getty Images

With 10 assists in World Cup history, Messi becomes the first player to reach double-digit assists.

Estimating the number of assists in past tournaments is not as easy as you might think. A complete list of assists from all World Championships since the first competition in 1930 is not available, and statistics from the first tournaments to the 1970s suffer from a lack of clear archival material. There is also the question of what actually constitutes an assist, as historical standards are very different from modern ones. As a result, some sources give Pele 10 assists, while others give him only six.

However, West Germany captain and 1954 World Cup winner Walter’s nine-time tally is virtually undisputed and is recognized as such by FIFA.

choosetraced back to 1966 to create a table of assistant leaders for the modern era. By these parameters, Messi was already the best assister before the match with Switzerland, eight points ahead of compatriot Diego Maradona.

The best assists at the World Cup since 1966.

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