Argentina's Lionel Messi sets record with second missed PK in 2026 World Cup

Lionel Messi may arguably be the greatest soccer player of all-time, but his penalty kick history is not a highlighted part of his decorated résumé.During Tuesday's World CupRound of 16 match against Egypt, the Argentinian star had an opportunity to level the match in the 21st minute. Enzo Fernández was fouled by Haissem Hassan in the Pharaohs' penalty box, earning Argentina a free kick.

Up stepped Messi, who is tied in the World Cup Golden Boot race with Kylian Mbappé and Erling Haaland with seven goals. Egypt Mostafa Shobeir would deny him the tiebreaking goal.MESSI'S PENALTY KICK IS SAVED BY SHOBEIR 🤯 pic.

twitter.com/oAUkHrLGWO— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) July 7, 2026The all-time leading goal scorer in World Cups has seemingly found penalty kicks to be one of the very few areas where he's been unable to succeed. According to Opta, Messi has had eight penalty kick attempts in his career in the tournament.

He has failed to score on half of them. Lionel Messi has missed half of his eight penalty attempts at World Cups (four), and is the first player in the competition's history to miss two penalties at a single edition (both excluding shootouts). pic.

twitter.com/tR4vliyixG— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) July 7, 2026Tuesday's denial was Messi's second missed penalty kick of the tournament. He is now the first player to miss multiple penalties in a single World Cup (excluding shootouts after extra time.)

Ghana's Asamoah Gyan (2006, 2010) is the only other player to miss multiple penalties over a World Cup career.Messi's World Cup penalty woes began at the 2018 tournament. He missed a chance in the 64th minute against Iceland, which would have broken a 1-1 deadlock.

Four years ago in Qatar, Messi had five penalty kick opportunities. He would score on four of them, including one in the final against France. His only miss came during a 2-0 win over Poland in the group stage.

Messi could have opened the scoring in their group play finale in 2026 against Austria, but his attempt w