After another eventful day in the Americas, Flashscore brings you a recap of the key takeaways from this Tuesday.
As always, catch up with yesterday's day 11 highlights here.
Key Moments
The day began with a win for Argentina in Group J (2-0), led by their captain and legendary No. 10. Three points earned against Austria secured the world champions a spot in the round of 16.
In Group I, France did the same, comfortably beating Iraq (3-0). What stood out most were the playing conditions, as the match was halted for over two hours due to a thunderstorm and torrential rain in Philadelphia! Ousmane Dembélé notably scored his first goal for the national team in a major tournament.
Next up was a clash that lived up to expectations: Norway led by Erling Haaland, defeated Senegal and Sadio Mane. That also makes six points for the Scandinavians, who will play a group final against the Bleus on Friday.
Finally, Algeria and Riyad Mahrez had a close call but managed to edge past Jordan. It was Marseille's Amine Gouiri who rescued the Fennecs with ten minutes to go. They, too, will play a final for second place against Austria on Saturday night.
Player of the Day
With five goals to his name, Messi remains at the top of the scorers' chart. More importantly, his brace allowed him to definitively surpass Klose, bringing his World Cup goal tally to 18! And that number could rise further with the last group match against Jordan, followed by the knockout stage.
That wasn't the only record set - he became just the second player in history to score at least 4 goals in three different editions (2014, 2022, 2026), after Klose (2002, 2006, 2010). Mbappe became the third by scoring his own brace (4 goals in 2018, 8 in 2022, and 4 in 2026).
Additionally, Messi became only the second player to score his team's first five goals at a World Cup after Oleg Salenko with Russia in 1994.
With another brace, he became the third player in history to score multiple goals in three consecutive matches after Guillermo Stabile in 1930 and Sandor Kocsis in 1954.
And that's not all: Messi is now the fourth player to score five goals in his first two matches of a World Cup after Sandor Kocsis in 1954, Just Fontaine in 1958, and Harry Kane in 2019.
It's also worth noting that he became the third player in history to score a brace after missing a penalty, after Alessandro Altobelli in 1990 and David Villa in 2010. And, fittingly, he achieved all these feats exactly 40 years to the day after Diego Maradona's brace against England...
Beyond all these records, he also put in a great performance, as his stats once again show...
Goal of the Day
It's hard to pick just one, but we've chosen Erling Haaland's second goal. Without taking a touch or even really resetting himself, the Norwegian managed to find the back of the net with an unstoppable side-footed finish.
Thanks to another brace, the "Cyborg" delivered another outstanding performance, keeping pace with the other two World Cup legends. He has now firmly entered his country's footballing folklore: Haaland is now Norway's top scorer in the competition, surpassing Kjetil Rekdal and his two goals between 1994 and 1998.
Most notably, the Manchester City striker achieved what very few players have: scoring multiple goals in his first two World Cup matches. A spectacular debut.
Best of Social Media
Klose reacted to Messi's brace, which allowed the Argentine to surpass the German.
This might just be the cutest image of the day...
And Messi isn't just winning over toddlers!