Lionel Messi Defending champions Argentina, which beat Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time to advance to the final, admitted they have “many” areas to improve. fifa world cup 16 rounds.Argentina reached the last 16 of the World Cup for the sixth consecutive time after defeating Cape Verde in a tense last-32 match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Saturday (IST).Tottenham Hotspur defender Christian Romero scored the winning goal in the 111th minute, heading into the net from Messi’s corner kick after being intercepted by Cape Verde’s Dini Borges.Messi’s goal gave Argentina the lead, but Cape Verde hit back twice to level the score. Their second equalizer came from Sidney Lopez Cabral, whose goal was one of the finest of the tournament.After the game, Messi said Argentina was happy to advance, but admitted the team still had several issues to resolve before the next round.“Today, as always, we put in a huge effort, whether we played well or not, as we always say,” Messi said after the game. “But I think the important thing now is to rest, think about what happens next and try to take positives from today’s race. Apart from qualifying, I think there are positives because we did some good things and we also need to correct the bad things and I think there were a lot of bad things today.”Cape Verde made history by becoming the smallest country to reach the knockout stages of the 2026 World Cup. The country’s population of approximately 525,000 people is smaller than the population of every U.S. state. Wyoming is the closest state, with a population of about 576,000.Messi praised African teams for making life difficult for Argentina and said their performance was no surprise.“We knew it was going to be a very difficult game; this team lost to Spain and Uruguay for no reason. We did the most difficult part, which was to find the first goal,” Messi said. “We thought from that point on we would start to find our way and become more relaxed, but it was the complete opposite. We conceded goals, we backed off, we couldn’t pressure them well and they just hit the ball to their advantage. We knew it was going to be difficult; it’s a knockout game and no one is going to give you anything for free.“Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also praised Cape Verde and said his players would review their mistakes before the next round of matches.“There are no easy rivals. Congratulations to Cape Verde,” Scaloni said. “I will discuss the negatives with the players, but we will take away the positive, which is that we will never put down our weapons.”
