Overview:
Lionel Messi, expected to captain the champions will also become the first player to feature in six world cups and also extend his record for most appearances to 27 on his official international 200th cap.
Wednesday June 17, 2026
- Kansas City stadium, 4am [EAT]
World champions Argentina begin their title defence at the 2026 World Cup when they face Algeria at Kansas City in the wee hours of Wednesday.
The La Albiceleste, aiming to become only the third nation to defend the world cup besides Brazil and Italy want a perfect start unlike in 2022 when they lost their opening match to Saudi Arabia in Qatar.
Lionel Messi, expected to captain the champions will also become the first player to feature in six world cups and also extend his record for most appearances to 27 on his official international 200th cap.
Lionel Scaloni has nearly the same bunch of players who featured four years ago with Messi leading a group that has Emilian Martinez, Ezo Fernandes, Lisandro Martinez and Nicolas Tagliafico among others.
During the qualifiers, Argentina topped the CONMEBOL group collecting 38 points with Messi top scoring with eight goals through the qualifiers.
For Algeria, another African nation entering fray, they qualified for the world cup topping a group that had Uganda, Guinea and Mozambique losing just once.
They will rely Mohamed Amoura who finished as the continent’s golden boot winner with 10 goals and four assists but Riyadh Mahrez will skipper the side.
These nations have only met once before: a June 2007 friendly, won 4-3 by Argentina at Camp Nou, with Messi netting his first international brace.
In the same group, Austria and Jordan face off at 7am on Wednesday.
How to watch
All 104 matches will be live on DStv on four dedicated FIFA World Cup Channels in multiple languages. The Channels are FIFA World Cup Central (Channel 222), FIFA World Cup Extra (Channel 223), FIFA World Cup Pass (Channel 225), and FIFA World Cup Swahili (Channel 224).
