Lionel Messi’s record against African nations: Algeria his favourite target

Lionel Messi has scored more goals against Algeria than any other African national team, with the Argentina captain having found the net five times during his international career.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has faced a number of African opponents while representing the Albiceleste, both at the latter stages of the World Cup and in high-profile friendly matches.

Algeria leads the list with five goals conceded against Messi. Nigeria are second, having allowed the Argentina forward to score three times. Those goals include strikes from memorable group-stage meetings at the World Cup.

Messi has scored against seven different African nations in total during his time with the national team. The record underlines his consistency against teams from the continent and adds to the long list of opponents against whom he has made an impact for Argentina.

His goals against African nations are distributed as follows:

– Algeria: 5 goals – Nigeria: 3 goals – Egypt: 1 goal – Zambia: 1 goal – Cape Verde: 1 goal – Angola: 1 goal – Benin: 1 goal