Messi Eyes Immortality in Dallas as Argentina Hunt Top Spot to Dodge Spain

Argentina go into Monday's Group J meeting with Austria in Dallas knowing a win keeps them top of the group and almost certainly clear of a brutal last-32 tie with Spain. Lionel Messi arrives at the same fixture chasing the goal that would make him the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history, a record he should reach within days after his hat-trick against Algeria.

This is not the stuttering, anxious Argentina of Qatar 2022. The reigning champions opened their defence with a near-perfect performance, and the question now is simpler and stranger: how do you build on perfection?

The answer matters more than the prosaic look of a mid-group-stage fixture suggests. Finish second in Group J and Argentina probably meet Spain in the round of 32. Beat Ralf Rangnick's ferocious, flawed Austria and they postpone that test, perhaps indefinitely.

Dallas, Maradona and the ghost of 1994

Few venues carry more weight for Argentina than this one. Twenty miles east of AT&T Stadium sits the Cotton Bowl, where Diego Maradona played his final game for his country before being thrown out of USA 94 for ephedrine doping.

"They cut off my legs"

It was in Dallas, at the Four Seasons hotel, that Maradona delivered his most desolate line after learning his fate.

They cut off my legs.

That is the backdrop against which Messi now plays. The albiceleste who fill the home of the Dallas Cowboys want Maradona's successors to break into a gallop in the city that broke him.

A chant of revenge

A new song has followed Argentina around the United States, referring to "the cup that was stolen from the No 10, the one they did not let us lift". If the players need extra motivation to dismiss Austria or to supply Messi with another crowning moment, the symbolism is everywhere.

Monday is also the 40th anniversary of Maradona's "Hand of God" and his solo goal against England in 1986. Lionel Scaloni, recalling watching the second of those at his grandmother's house, expects the emotion to surface.

Maybe we will see it everywhere tomorrow and maybe we will cry a little too.

A liberated Argentina chasing top spot in Group J

The contrast with Qatar is stark. At this stage in 2022, Argentina were repairing the damage of a shock opening defeat to Saudi Arabia. This time they began with a win, and the mood is entirely different.

The backpack is gone

Before the Algeria game, Scaloni said his side had shed the mochila, the backpack of expectation that burdened them until the night of glory in Lusail. The pressure valve has been released.

Argentina and Messi now operate with an inner calm that was absent through those attritional early matches three-and-a-half years ago. Enzo Fernández underlined how much the early result has helped.

It was really tough starting with that defeat but then the rest of the World Cup was amazing. Having started with a win it's very favourable, it helps our confidence.

Scaloni's relaxed champions

Scaloni, a noticeably relaxed figure this summer, insists the class of 2022 have refused to ease off.

I think we are on good lines. Three-and-a-half years have gone but they haven't let themselves go, they always want to improve. They still have a high level of intensity, there is always room for improvement and they have understood the message really well.

The collective target is clear. Argentina would rather not entertain second place, and a more rhythmic, possession-based side fancy their chances of picking holes in Austria.

The personal milestone should follow naturally. Messi, who turned 39 on Wednesday and is competing while his father, Jorge, undergoes medical treatment, needs one goal to stand alone at the top of the World Cup's all-time scoring chart.

Can Rangnick's Austria spring a surprise?

Austria arrive as the underdogs and their coach is doing little to argue otherwise. Asked to assess Argentina, Rangnick offered a pointed appraisal that doubled as motivation for his own players.

Let's talk about weaknesses first, because there are none. Nothing that we were able to observe.

The pressing gamble

Rangnick's team are built on intense pressing, a system Scaloni referenced more than once and clearly respects. To trouble the champions, that press will need to be flawless.

• Argentina favour rhythm and possession, the ideal target for a high-intensity press but also the ideal opponent to punish gaps.
• Jordan caused Austria intermittent difficulties in San Francisco, a warning that the system is not watertight.
• Messi's habit of lurking rather than harrying, Rangnick noted, only adds to his threat.

Playing the percentages down

Rangnick acknowledged the scale of the task while seeming to deliberately downplay his side's prospects.

If you look at the algorithm it probably says we won't win. Obviously they have the greatest player of all time in their team. We need to show the best performance we have made under my tenure.

Austria may also have to rely on Argentinian missteps. There is always the outside chance that emotion, on a date so heavy with history, gets in the way.

What happens next

A win on Monday all but secures top spot in Group J for Argentina and steers them away from a last-32 collision with Spain. Defeat or a draw would leave the permutations open and raise the prospect of that early heavyweight tie.

For Messi, the record is a matter of time rather than doubt. Dallas, the city that ended Maradona's international career in disgrace, offers him the chance to rewrite Argentina's relationship with the venue and to mark a 40-year-old anniversary with something of his own.

Both Messi and Argentina arrive in radiant form. The defending champions now face the rare and demanding task of proving that a team can finish a tournament exactly as it began.