Lionel Messi admitted Argentina have “many” areas to improve after the defending champions survived a huge scare to beat Cape Verde 3-2 after extra time and reach the FIFA World Cup round of 16.Argentina sealed their place in the last 16 for the sixth consecutive World Cup after defeating Cape Verde in a tense round-of-32 match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday (IST).Tottenham defender Cristian Romero scored the winner in the 111th minute, with his header from Messi’s corner taking a deflection off Cape Verde’s Diney Borges before heading into the net.Messi gave Argentina the lead with a well-taken goal, but Cape Verde fought back twice to level the game. Their second equalizer came through Sidny Lopes Cabral, whose strike was one of the standout goals of the tournament.Speaking after the match, Messi said Argentina were happy to qualify but admitted the team had many issues to fix before the next round.“Today, we made a great effort, as always, playing well and playing badly, as we always say,” Messi said after the game. “But I think the important thing now is to rest, think about what the future holds and try to take the positives from today’s game. Besides qualifying, I think there are positives because we did some good things, and we also have to correct the bad ones, which I think are also many today.”Cape Verde has made history by becoming the smallest country to reach the knockout stage of the 2026 World Cup. The country has a population of around 525,000, less than every US state. Wyoming is the closest, with a population of about 576,000.Messi praised the African side for making life difficult for Argentina and said their performance was not a surprise.“We know that this is a very difficult game; this team did not lose to Spain and Uruguay for a reason. We did the most difficult part, which is to find the first goal,” said Messi. “We thought that from then on, we would start to find our game and be more relaxed, but it was the complete opposite. We lost the ball, we sat back, we couldn’t pressure them well, and they hit their strengths. We know it will be difficult; it’s a knockout tournament, and nobody gives you anything for free.“Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni also praised Cape Verde and said his players will examine the mistakes from the match before the next round.“There is no easy opponent. Congratulations to Cape Verde,” said Scaloni. “I will talk to the players about the negative, but we took the positive, which is that we did not give up our arms.”