Lionel Messi admits Argentina have “a lot” of room for improvement after the defending champions survived a major scare to beat Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time and reach the FIFA World Cup round of 16.Argentina sealed their place in the last 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup after defeating Cape Verde in a tense 32-round match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida on Saturday (IST).Tottenham defender Cristian Romero scored the winner in the 111th minute, with his header from Messi’s corner taking a deflection off Cape Verde’s Diney Borges before heading into the net.Messi had given Argentina the lead with a well-taken goal, but Cape Verde struck back twice to level the match. His second equalizer came for Sidny Lopes Cabral, whose strike was among the outstanding goals of the tournament.Speaking after the match, Messi said Argentina were pleased to qualify, but admitted the team had several issues to resolve before the next round.“Today, we made a huge effort, as always, play well and play badly, as we always say,” Messi said after the match. “But I think the important thing now is to rest, think about what comes next and try to take positives from today’s game. Beyond the qualification, I think there are positives because we did good things, and we also need to correct the bad ones, which I think were a lot today too.”Cape Verde made history by becoming the smallest nation to reach the knockout stage of the 2026 World Cup. The country has a population of about 525,000, less than any state in the United States. Wyoming is the closest, with a population of about 576,000.Messi praised the African side for making life difficult for Argentina and said their performance did not come as a surprise.“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.“Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also praised Cape Verde and said his players will review the mistakes of the match before the next round.“There is no easy rival. Congratulations to Cape Verde,” said Scaloni. “I will talk to the players about the negative, but we take away the positive, which is that we never let our arms go.”
