Texas, June 22 -- Lionel Messi reinforced his status as one of football's greatest-ever players at Dallas Stadium, scoring twice to overcome an early penalty miss and guide defending champions Argentina to a 2-0 victory over a resilient Austria side in their Group J clash of the FIFA World Cup 2026 on Monday, June 22 (local time).

With his brace, Messi not only secured victory for his side but also rewrote the record books by becoming the all-time leading goalscorer in men's FIFA World Cup history ahead of his 39th birthday on June 24, surpassing Germany's Miroslav Klose. He opened the scoring in the 38th minute to move past Klose's tally of 16 goals and later added another in stoppage time to take his overall World Cup tally to 18 goals...