Around 84,000 Argentine spectators at the Monumental Stadium in Buenos Aires were completely satisfied with Messi’s return. The 37-year-old player showed that he is in top form after nearly a month of returning to play from injury.

Before that, Messi returned to play for Inter Miami in a total of 6 matches since mid-September, scoring 5 goals and providing 1 assist. He also played his first match with Argentina since the Copa America (a 1-1 draw with Venezuela on October 11 away).

In his return to Argentina to meet his home fans, Messi was chosen by coach Scaloni to start with two strikers, Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez, to create a new attacking trio. Previously, when Messi played, it was usually only Alvarez or Lautaro Martinez who started. But now both of them are in the starting lineup alongside their senior in a 4-3-3 formation.

This change was made easy because Messi’s role was to link up his two junior teammates in attack, while behind him, the midfield trio of De Paul, Enzo Fernandez and Mac Allister took control of the game.

In a dominant match, Messi opened the scoring for Argentina in the 19th minute, after Lautaro Martinez took advantage of a mistake by a Bolivian defender to create an opportunity. Thanks to that, the 37-year-old player escaped and fired a sharp shot into the penalty area to score.

At the end of the first half, Messi had a great chance to score the second goal of the match, but he set up Lautaro Martinez to score when he tapped the ball into the net from close range to make it 2-0. In the 45+3 minute of extra time, Messi continued to create his spectacular highlight when he sent a long pass from midfield for Alvarez to run down and score, increasing the gap to 3-0 for the Argentina team.

In the second half, coach Scaloni made many changes to the attacking line, but still kept Messi to play alongside young and new players such as Nico Paz (20 years old) or Thiago Almada (23 years old).

Messi continued to lead his teammates perfectly, helping his team score 3 more goals from beautiful attacking moves initiated by the famous player himself.

Thiago Almada raised the score to 4-0 in the 69th minute, before Nico Paz and Palacios were the ones who created the situations from Messi’s attacking arrangements, allowing this famous player to finish perfectly and score 2 more goals in the 84th and 86th minutes.

Thanks to that, Messi completed a spectacular hat-trick to help Argentina beat Bolivia 6-0. This result helped Argentina maintain the top spot in the 2026 World Cup qualifiers in South America with 22 points after 10 matches. Behind Colombia (who beat Chile 4-0) is in second place with 19 points. Meanwhile, Uruguay is in third place with 16 points after drawing 0-0 with Ecuador.