Argentina 2–0 Austria — World Cup 2026

Matchday 12 · Group J · 2026-06-22

Argentina

xG 3.54

HT 1–02 – 0

Austria

xG 1.38

Argentina Lionel Messi 38′, Lionel Messi 90+5′

AT&T Stadium · 70,649 attendance

The story

The favourite delivered: Argentina (76% pre-match) beat Austria 2–0. The decisive moment came late, in the 90th minute.

Expected goals race

Argentina Austria ● goal

Cumulative expected goals, minute by minute. ESPN's free feed has no xG, so each shot's xG is estimated with a naive distance-and-angle logistic model fitted on shot coordinates from the play-by-play.

Shot map

Argentina (attacking →) Austria (attacking ←) size = xG · star = goal

Argentina · match stats · Austria

53.6 Possession 46.4

12 Shots 6

5 On Target 1

1 Corners 3

13 Fouls 13

2 Offsides 0

1 Saves 2

2 Yellows 2

0 Reds 0

What the model expected

Pre-match Elo: Argentina 2131, Austria 1851. The model priced this Argentina 76% / draw 15% / Austria 9%, most likely score 2–0. The model called it. The result moves 12 Elo points from Austria to Argentina — that flows straight into the next round of tournament simulations.

Timeline

9' PEN MISSPenalty missed. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot is close, but misses to the right.

38' GOALGoal! Argentina 1, Austria 0. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Facundo Medina following a fast break.

40' YELLOWStefan Posch (Austria) is shown the yellow card.

57' SUBSubstitution, Argentina. Nicolás Otamendi replaces Cristian Romero.

64' SUBSubstitution, Argentina. Julián Alvarez replaces Thiago Almada.

65' SUBSubstitution, Argentina. Nico González replaces Lautaro Martínez.

67' SUBSubstitution, Austria. Marco Friedl replaces David Alaba.

68' SUBSubstitution, Austria. Alexander Prass replaces Stefan Posch.

68' SUBSubstitution, Austria. Marko Arnautovic replaces Paul Wanner.

76' YELLOWFacundo Medina (Argentina) is shown the yellow card.

76' YELLOWKonrad Laimer (Austria) is shown the yellow card.

78' SUBSubstitution, Austria. Patrick Wimmer replaces Romano Schmid.

82' SUBSubstitution, Argentina. Leandro Paredes replaces Rodrigo De Paul.

82' SUBSubstitution, Argentina. Nicolás Tagliafico replaces Facundo Medina.

85' SUBSubstitution, Austria. Carney Chukwuemeka replaces Michael Gregoritsch.

90'+2' YELLOWLeandro Paredes (Argentina) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.

90'+5' GOALGoal! Argentina 2, Austria 0. Lionel Messi (Argentina) left footed shot from the left side of the six yard box to the centre of the goal following a fast break.

Lineups

Argentina

4-4-2

23Emiliano Martínez G
6Lisandro Martínez CD-L
13Cristian Romero CD-R
25Facundo Medina LB
26Nahuel Molina RB
24Enzo Fernández CM-L
20Alexis Mac Allister CM-R
16Thiago Almada LM
7Rodrigo De Paul RM
22Lautaro Martínez CF-L
10Lionel Messi CF-R

Subs: Nicolás Otamendi, Julián Álvarez, Nico González, Leandro Paredes, Nicolás Tagliafico

Austria

4-2-3-1

1Alexander Schlager G
8David Alaba CD-L
3Kevin Danso CD-R
20Konrad Laimer LB
5Stefan Posch RB
24Paul Wanner AM
4Xaver Schlager LM
6Nicolas Seiwald RM
11Michael Gregoritsch F
9Marcel Sabitzer AM-L
18Romano Schmid AM-R

Subs: Marco Friedl, Alexander Prass, Marko Arnautovic, Patrick Wimmer, Carney Chukwuemeka