Messi, Mbappe and Haaland fire up Golden Boot race

After Lionel Messi scored two goals to set the World Cup record and Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland delivered dazzling performances themselves as the race for the Golden Boots heats up.

Haaland scored twice for Norway in the first 15 minutes of the second half of a 3-2 win over Senegal on Monday night.

With the goals, he took his tally of goals in this World Cup to four, which places jointly in second position alongside Mbappe, and one goal behind Messi.

Just hours before Haaland's performance, Messi scored two for Argentina and Mbappe did the same for France.

Messi scored the 17th and 18th goal in World Cups as Argentina advanced to the knockout stage 2-0 win over Austria.

Messi missed a penalty early in the match, but made up for it with a left-footed strike that hit the back of the net in the first half.

With that goal, he surpassed Germany’s Miroslav Klose’s record of 16 goals in the World Cup.

In the dying moments of the match, he took his tally to 18, with his fifth goal of the 2026 edition.

Meanwhile, in a match muddled by a two-hour interruption due to rain and lightning, Mbappe netted his second brace in as many matches as France thrashed Iraq 3-0.

Mbappe scored in the 14th and 54th minutes to cap his 100th appearance for France.

Messi is currently topping the race for the Golden Boot with five goals, Mbappe and Haaland are on his heels with four goals apiece.

Germany’s Deniz Undav and Canada’s Jonathan Davis in behind them with three goals each.