The Argentine National Team played Bolivia on the tenth date of the South American Qualifiers and were absolutely dominant. They won 6-0 with a great performance from Lionel Messi, who scored three goals, and strengthened their position at the top of the standings as they head towards the 2026 World Cup.

Lionel Scaloni's team had just come up against Venezuela away from home in a tricky match. Luckily, Colombia, which was chasing the lead, lost to Bolivia at altitude, so it didn't put its lead at risk.

Back in Buenos Aires, Argentina showed its best football with a new offensive trident in front of a packed Monumental. Messi, Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez.

On top of that, Scaloni got the midfield back that won the World Cup. Enzo, Mac Allister and De Paul worked well together in the middle and brought back the kind of football we'd been missing in recent matches.

The first bit of excitement in the match came at 19 minutes. Bolivia made a mistake at the start, and Argentina pressed well. The resulting rebound ended up at Lionel Messi's feet.

Messi went up against Viscarra on his own. Messi fooled the goalkeeper with his body position at the crucial moment. He faked a cross and then shot hard at the first post, leaving the '1' of Bolivia no chance.

With the advantage of one goal, Argentina felt much more comfortable in the match and started scoring. At 43, Julián delivered an excellent through ball to Messi, who was left one-on-one again.

In the second match against Viscarra, Messi showed he has a talent that goes beyond the ordinary. He set up Lautaro Martínez with a backhand pass and Toro finished into an empty net for 2-0.

The first half was wrapped up with the last goal from the brand new offensive trident: Julián Álvarez scored and celebrated with the Albiceleste.

It was clear that Bolivia was outclassed and didn't even manage to respond. The final nail in the coffin came from the feet of Thiago Almada, who came on in the second half and scored at 69.

And the icing on the cake came with five minutes to go. Messi rounded off his double with some great individual play, followed by a right-footed shot, and celebrated twice at the Monumental.

With two minutes to go, Messi scored a hat-trick with another superb left-footed shot in the 86th minute, making him the star of the victory against Bolivia.

This win sees Argentina take the lead in the Qualifiers with 22 points from 10 matches. Colombia also won on this matchday and is now just one point behind the Albiceleste with 19.

After beating Bolivia, Argentina will be visiting Paraguay on matchday 11 of the qualifiers. The match is scheduled for 14 November at 8:30 pm.