Messi’s time to shine

Kylian Mbappé pushed France through to the World Cup quarterfinals. Erling Haaland and Norway will be there, too.

So will Harry Kane after England’s epic 3-2 win over Mexico.

The stars are shining in this World Cup and it’s about to get brighter, even after Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo bowed out for the last time.

The last two round of 16 games are on Tuesday, including Switzerland against Colombia in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Topping the marquee is a showdown between Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah in Atlanta.

Messi has scored seven goals in four matches, matching Mbappé and Haaland in a star-studded Golden Boot race. Messi has scored in a record eight straight World Cup matches, dating to the 2022 title run, and keeps adding to his record career total of 20 goals.

“I think this World Cup has been, is very tricky for everyone. It seems there is no clear favourite,” Argentina’s coach Lionel Scaloni said on Monday. “I am convinced that if we didn’t resort to our character in the last match we would be out as Cape Verde was giving us a very hard day.”

Salah has been the face of Egyptian soccer, a four-time English Premier League Golden Boot winner and the league’s all-time leading foreign-born scorer.

Perhaps Salah’s biggest accomplishment is pushing Egypt deeper into the World Cup than they’ve ever been.

“My dreams have no limits. My ambitions have no limits. I promise that we will do everything to live up to the expectations (of fans),” Egypt coach Hossam Hassan said. “We’re no underdogs. We’re big in every respect. We are a civilisation that is 7,000 years old, even more than 7,000 years.”