The stage is set as Argentina takes on Spain at the 2026 FIFA World Cup final. The South Americans defeated England 2-1 in the semi-finals, courtesy of an inspired performance by Lionel Messi. Meanwhile, Spain cruised past France 2-0. Argentina, the defending champion, will look to become the third team in history to win back-to-back World Cups. Only Brazil and Italy have done it before. For Spain, Rodri will be key, and he leads the list of players with the most passes completed in the tournament. He has completed 648 passes, breaking his own record of 638 in 2022.
Leandro Paredes is the only player from Argentina in that list with 496 passes and in fifth position. Pau Cubarsi (547), Aymeric Laporte (533), and Marc Guehi (514) are second, third and fourth, respectively. Spain are also unbeaten in 37 matches, a joint record in men’s international football. They last lost to Colombia (1-0) in March 2024. Since then, they have won 27 games, drawn 10.
Lamine Yamal has completed the most dribbles at this tournament (30). He is followed by Kylian Mbappe (24), Vinicius Junior (23), Messi (22) and Jeremy Doku (21).
Argentina have scored at least 2 goals in 13 consecutive games, a World Cup record. They have also scored five goals from outside the penalty area, the joint-most by one team in a World Cup. Messi got two of them, with Giovani Lo Celso, Enzo Fernandez and Julian Alvarez grabbing one each.
Messi has bagged four assists in this campaign, one shy of France’s Michael Olise. The 39-year-old stretched his record for assisting in the most editions to six.
Against Messi, Spain goalkeeper Unai Simon will look to maintain another clean sheet. He has managed six clean sheets in seven matches, the most registered in a single edition. Seven goalkeepers have managed five each (Jan Jongbloed in 1974, Walter Zenga in 1990, Claudio Taffarel in 1994, Fabien Barthez in 1998, Oliver Kahn in 2002, Gianluigi Buffon in 2006, and Iker Casillas in 2010).
In this World Cup, Argentina have won in all seven matches to equal Brazil’s 2002 record for most wins in a single World Cup. Lionel Scaloni’s side could become the fifth team to win the trophy with a 100 per cent win record after Uruguay in 1930, Italy in 1938, Brazil in 1970 and 2002.
