Messi should not start for Argentina. He should be closing out games into extra time. If he came on in the second half at the 45th minute mark, like what Belgium did with De Bruyne, Doku, and Lukaku, they would have a better shot at repeating.

He can’t last a full 90 minutes. In every match thus far, he drops off at the 60th minute, and if he’s not subbed off, he’s dragging hard in the 80th minute.

Messi is an alien, but anyone at his age is going to have trouble maintaining enough energy to compete against England, Colombia, France, Morocco, or Spain. It’s different to play Cape Verde, Austria, Algeria, or Jordan, where Argentina is going to maintain the majority of the possession.

If he comes on at halftime, you can be sure he can last until penalties in extra time, and even then, he will be hurting.

People forget that he almost missed the final against France in 2022. After the semifinal against Croatia, there were concerns because he was repeatedly grabbing the back of his left hamstring during the match. He also missed one of Argentina’s training sessions before the final.

He came into this year’s World Cup with a muscle injury scare and almost missed the first group match.

They’re going to start him because he’s Messi, but can they trust their bench to finish the job at the end of the game? So many of these games this tournament are going to extra time. Messi should be there at the end of the game as a closer if they need him. They have a squad good enough to start games without him. If they score enough, he can rest.

I don’t want to see Messi go off injured to finish his international career or have to watch the quarterfinal, semifinal, or final from the bench after he gets subbed off.