Argentina has survived one of the biggest fears of the FIFA World Cup beat Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time on Friday and book a place in the round of 16, with Lionel Messi praising the underdogs after pushing the defending champions all the way.Tottenham defender Cristian Romero scored the winner in the 111th minute when his header from Messi’s corner took a deflection off Cape Verdean defender Diney Borges before heading into the net.Messi opened the scoring with his 20th FIFA World Cup goal, extending his tournament record. Lisandro MartÃnez then put Argentina back in front in regulation stoppage time after Cape Verde equalised. The African side struck again in extra time before Romero’s effort settled the match.The result sent Argentina into the round of 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup, but only after Cape Verde came close to producing one of the biggest upsets in the history of the tournament.Messi said his team had to fight until the end to go through.“As this team has shown many times, and as I have said many times, they compete,” Messi said in Spanish. “And we competed until the end.”Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also praised Cape Verde for the challenge they posed.“I have to give credit to our opponents,” Scaloni said. “The truth is, when people say that there is no easy opponent, today (Cape Verde) showed that they are a great team.”Messi said Argentina knew before the match that Cape Verde would not be easy to beat, pointing to their results before the tournament.“We know it will be a very tough match; this team had not lost in Spain and Uruguay for a reason. We did the hardest part, which was to find the first goal,” said Messi. “We thought that from then on, we would start to find our game and be more relaxed, but it was quite the opposite. We lost the ball, we sat down, we couldn’t press well, and they hit with their strengths. We know it was difficult; this is a knockout tournament, and nobody gives you anything for free.“Cape Verde’s run to the 2026 World Cup has ended after a history-making campaign. With a population of around 525,000, the island nation became the smallest country to reach the knockout stage of the tournament.Captained by 40-year-old goalkeeper Vozinha, Cape Verde had already surprised many relatives with former champions Spain and Uruguay, as well as Saudi Arabia, before taking on Argentina in extra time in the round of 32.