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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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The group stages of the 2026 FIFA World Cup are officially over and now we move on to the Round of 32. So far several of the pre-tournament favorites have caught form and enter the knockout stages with real momentum. Yet there's one country that without question has the easiest path to the World Cup final, Argentina.
The defending champions strolled through the group stage and they've been rewarded with the softest schedule of any contender in the bracket. And Lionel Messi, who just turned 39 years old, is playing some of the best soccer of his career.
Argentina opened on June 16 cruising to a 3-0 win over Algeria, followed by a 2-0 victory over Austria on June 22 and a 3-1 win over Jordan on June 27.
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In the Austria game, Messi became the highest goal scorer in World Cup history, moving up to 18 goals on an incredible double. He'd entered the game with 16 goals after a hat-trick in Argentina's opener against Algeria.
As if that wasn't enough, Messi made his first substitute appearance at a World Cup since 2006 in Argentina's group stage finale against Jordan, and extended his career total to 19 goals with a late free kick.
In his last nine World Cup matches dating back to 2022, Messi has either scored or assisted in eight of them, showing no signs of slowing down. That's genuinely a terrifying sight for the rest of the field.
But that's not even the scariest part...
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Argentina will face Cape Verde, the smallest nation ever to reach the World Cup knockout stages, doing so in their tournament debut, on July 3 in Miami in the Round of 32. The Blue Sharks are an incredible story, but their magical run ends against Messi.
From there, Argentina will head into the Round of 16 where they'll face the winner of Australia vs. Egypt. Regardless of who wins that matchup, is looking at another favorable draw as neither team realistically has a defense capable of containing Messi or Lautaro Martinez.
To reach the semifinals, Argentina would then have to beat either Switzerland, Algeria, Ghana, or Colombia. Los Cafeteros are the most competitive of the bunch, and they've historically given Argentina a difficult time, drawing 1-1 in their last meeting a year ago, and even beating them 2-1 in September 2024.
But by then, Colombia will have had to get past Ghana and likely Switzlerland, and may have less left in the tank than Argentina.
That lines them up with a semifinal matchup against what would most likely either be Brazil or England. Both came in as pre-tournament favorites, but are still seen as a tier below France, Spain, and Argentina. And again, by that point, Brazil and England will have faced much more difficult opponents while Argentina would come in fresh.
Only Argentina, France, and co-hosts Mexico walked away from the group stages with a clean nine points, and now, it looks like La Albiceleste easily has the friendliest path forward.
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