Argentina head coach Lionel Scaloni has confirmed that Lionel Messi, the World Cup’s leading scorer, will start on the bench against Jordan on Saturday night.“Leo will go to the bench,” Scaloni said at a press conference on Friday. “I’ll hold off on the final starting lineup, but Leo will come in later.”Messi, who turned 39 on Wednesday, would face 11 days without competitive action if he did not play at all against Jordan, with Argentina’s round-of-32 match set for July 3.Argentina has already won Group J with six points and five goals, all scored by Messi, and is guaranteed first place going into the knockout rounds. Scaloni said the opportunity to rotate was one he owed to the players who had not yet featured.“The great merit of everything that’s been done goes to the boys who are always there and train to the max,” Scaloni said. “I think that when there’s an opportunity, there are great players who also deserve to come in. And the idea is for the team to play in the same way.”Messi’s five goals at the tournament have made him the all-time leading scorer in World Cup history with 18.“In Leo, you see everything; he’s at the exact same level he was at in 2022, or even better,” left-back Nicolás Tagliafico said at the press conference on Friday. “He’s enjoying it, and we’re enjoying it as well.”Jordan arrives at Dallas Stadium having lost both of its group games, to Austria and Algeria, and are already eliminated. Argentina faces the second-placed team from Group H in the round of 32 next weekend in Miami. According to The Athletic’s live projections, Argentina’s most likely next opponents are Cape Verde.“I think the team is working with the same harmony as before, and let’s hope things start falling into place; we shouldn’t put pressure on ourselves,” Tagliafico said. He added that Argentina is determined to finish the group stage undefeated, saying: “We cannot let our guard down, we cannot relax, even though we have qualified already.”Scaloni was also asked whether he would have made a different rotation call against a stronger opponent. He said he would not. “It would be a completely disrespectful way to make that decision,” he said.