At 8 a.m. Beijing time on October 16, the 10th round of the 2026 World Cup South American Qualifiers will be contested, and Argentina will play Bolivia at home. In the first half, Messi assisted Lautaro Martinez and Alvarez to score goals after scoring a goal, and Argentina took a three-goal lead; In the second half, Almada put the icing on the cake to score the first goal for the national team, and Messi scored two more goals before the end to score a hat-trick. In the end, Argentina beat Bolivia 6-0 at home, ending a two-round winless run and leading the South American standings of the World Preliminary Championship with 22 points.
Argentina is currently ranked No. 1 in the world and Bolivia is No. 83. In the last two rounds of the World Preliminary Round, Argentina lost to Colombia and then drew with Venezuela, suffering two rounds of winless, but still leads the South American standings with excellent results in the early stage. Bolivia are on a three-game winning streak and are seventh in the play-off zone.
In the first 15 minutes of the game, neither side created too good chances to threaten the goal. In the 15th minute, Alvarez received a diagonal ball on the left side of the penalty area, cut inside with the ball and shot into the goal, which was picked up by the goalkeeper. In the 19th minute, the Bolivia players went out at the back to drag, Lautaro Martinez grabbed and sent a pass, Messi won the ball on the right side of the field and took it into the box to shoot low, Argentina led 1-0!
In the 30th minute, Argentina won a set-piece at the top of the penalty area, Messi took the penalty and hit the goal directly, and the ball hit the human wall and bounced off the bottom line. In the 35th minute, Argentina again won a set-piece from a close position, again Messi, this time his shot went straight to the right side of the goal, but was saved by the goalkeeper.
In the 43rd minute, Argentina counter-attacked, Messi took the ball to the heart of the box to attract the defense and chose to divide the ball, Lautaro Martinez won the ball on the left side of the box and pushed the outside of the instep to score, Argentina led 2-0!
In the third minute of stoppage time in the first half, Argentina won a set-piece in the front of the center circle, Messi quickly picked the ball into the box, Alvarez unloaded the ball on the left side of the box and scored the goal, Argentina quickly rewrote the score to 3-0!
At the end of the first half, Argentina went into the break with a 3-0 lead.
In the second half, Argentina won a set-piece on the right side of the field, Messi drove a short ball, Enzo Fernandez crossed from the edge of the box, Otamendi headed in the middle of the box, but the goal was disallowed because Tagliafico was offside and interfered with the goalkeeper.
In the 59th minute, Argentina's left corner kick went into the box, and Alvarez's header from the middle of the box went over the crossbar. In the 60th minute, McAllister received a cross from a teammate on the line of the penalty area, and his volley was saved by the goalkeeper.
In the 69th minute, Paredes picked up a long-distance pass in the middle of the front field, Molina won the ball on the right side of the penalty area and crossed in front of the goal, Almada met the ball in the middle of the box and pushed the goal, scoring his first goal for the national team, Argentina led 4-0!
In the 85th minute, Palacios advanced the ball through the middle circle and handed it to Messi in front of him, Messi took the ball to the top of the box arc to shake off the defender and scored with a low shot, and Argentina rewrote the score to 5-0!
In the 87th minute, Messi collided with Nico Paz on the edge of the penalty area and scored a hat-trick with a long-range shot to give Argentina a 6-0 lead!
In the end, Argentina beat Bolivia 6-0 at home, ending a two-round winless run and leading the South American standings of the World Preliminary Championship with 22 points.
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