Switching helps, and Argentina can reach the semi without reaching FIFA's top 10

With the 3-1 victory over Jordan, on Saturday night (27), Argentina ended its commitments in the group stage of the World Cup. Now the knockout stage begins and the current world champion may have a relatively 'quiet' path in her title defense.

Argentina's next challenge is Cape Verde. The African team, which is making its debut in the World Cup, achieved its historic classification after finishing in 2nd place in Group H, which included leaders Spain and the eliminated Uruguay and Saudi Arabia. The match takes place next Friday, July 3rd, at 7pm (Brasília time), in Miami, Messi's home.

If they pass through Cape Verde, which is extremely likely, Argentina will face the winner of Australia x Egypt in the round of 16. Imagining a scenario in which they also advance to the quarterfinals, the next opponent could be Switzerland, Algeria, Colombia or Ghana.

If Messi and co. Moving on to the semis, which is also easily expected, will be the first opportunity to face a FIFA top 10 team. Among the top placed in the ranking are England (4th place), Brazil (5th place) and Mexico (9th place).

Imagining the best of scenarios for the current world champion, taking into account the performance presented so far in the 2026 World Cup, records will continue to be broken.

Against Jordan, Argentina reached the mark of 9 games without losing (7 wins and 2 draws), in addition to becoming the 3rd team to reach 50 matches in World Cups (behind only Brazil and Germany).

With a 100% success rate in the group stage, Argentina repeats the feat for the 5th time in history: 1930, 1998, 2010, 2014 and 2026.

Messi broke five world records in victory against Austria

Source: CNN