At the end of the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup 2026, Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez and Jude Bellingham set several new records with their outstanding performances, while several unique honors were also established in the history of the tournament. Wildlife

Argentina defeated Switzerland 1-3 in extra time to reach the semi-finals, while England defeated Norway 1-2 to reach the last four.

This is the first World Cup since the release of the FIFA rankings in 1992 in which the top four seeded teams have managed to reach the semi-finals. In addition, it has happened only the third time in the history of the World Cup that all four semi-finalists are former world champions, this honor was previously seen in the 1970 and 1990 World Cups.

Lionel Messi has made 20 passes that have resulted in shots at the 2026 World Cup so far, becoming the first player since 1966 to do so in three different World Cup editions.

Messi took his World Cup assists tally to 10 by setting up Alexis McAllister from a corner kick, the most by any player since 1966. He surpassed Diego Maradona (8 assists). Interestingly, this was also Messi’s first corner assist at the World Cup.