Mbappé and Messi star as France and Argentina win big in World Cup opener

The opening day of the World Cup played less like two routine group matches than a global civic pageant, with the noise in New York/New Jersey and Kansas City becoming part of the story. France beat Senegal 3-1 at New York/New Jersey Stadium, then Argentina followed with a 3-0 victory over Algeria at Kansas City Stadium, as Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi gave the tournament an early focal point.

France’s victory in Group I was driven by Mbappé, who scored in the 66th minute and again in stoppage time at 90+6, with Bradley Barcola adding the other France goal in the 82nd minute. Ibrahim Mbaye pulled one back for Senegal at 90+5, but the result still left France with 3 points and underlined how quickly the balance of the group can tilt when Mbappé is finishing chances at the top level. The Paris forward reached 58 goals for France and moved past every other name in the national scoring chart, while Didier Deschamps took charge of his 20th World Cup match as a coach, matching Bora Milutinovic, Oscar Tabarez and Mario Zagallo for games managed at the tournament.

Senegal’s defeat carried its own context. The team arrived at the competition for a third straight World Cup, with its best run still the quarterfinals in 2002, and Pape Thiaw, named permanent coach in December 2024, has been trying to sustain a side that has shown it can compete beyond its traditional weight. The atmosphere around the match reflected that ambition, with the crowd treating the opener as more than a scoreline and more like a test of identity, pride and continental standing.

Argentina’s match in Kansas City carried similar weight and even larger historical stakes. Messi scored a hat-trick in the 17th, 60th and 76th minutes to beat Algeria 3-0 and launch Argentina’s title defense with authority. The three goals lifted him to 16 in World Cup play, drawing him level with Miroslav Klose at the top of the all-time scoring list, and they came in his 200th appearance for the senior national team. The moment was sharpened further by the calendar: it arrived exactly 20 years after Messi’s World Cup debut against Serbia and Montenegro at Germany 2006.

Before the match, Messi already stood alone as Argentina’s leading World Cup scorer with 13. Now he is tied for the global record and, with Argentina set to face Austria on June 22, stands one game away from moving beyond it. On a day built on stadium noise, national expectation and two of the game’s defining names, the World Cup announced itself as a spectacle measured not only in goals, but in the emotions those goals set loose.