It’s all about Lionel Messi – the Barcelona star injured his back in a friendly against Honduras on Friday night and head coach Tata Martino has said that he will be a last-minute decision.
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Meanwhile, the 53-year-old was full of praise for his team’s performance against Chile as goals from Angel Di Maria and Ever Banega earned Argentina all three points. It should be kept in mind that Gerardo Martino has arguably the best forward line now present in football and if you don’t win a tournament with Lionel Messi, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero and Angel di Maria then you are not going to win it with anyone else.
“We expect in four days he’ll be in a condition to play”. We’re thinking that he will recover by then’.
Argentina will rely heavily on five-time World Player of the Year Messi, who has scored 50 goals in 107 appearances for his country and will play in his seventh major tournament with the national team. What’s more, excluding the result of penalty shootouts, Argentina are unbeaten in 25 Copa America clashes against Chile, winning 19 and drawing six.
With some top dogs like Brazil and Uruguay faltering in the absence of their star mans Neymar and Suarez respectively, Argentina, contrastingly, were unpurturbed sans skipper Messi and showed there is more to the team than just him. The two most recent winners of this tournament – Uruguay in 2011 and Chile in 2015 – fostered an unbreakable spirit that was insurmountable from the very outset (in the latter’s case, it withstood Arturo Vidal almost killing himself in a drunk-driving incident).
We have the first week of the group stages of the Copa America 2016 going on.
Jose Fuenzalida pulled one back in the 93rd minute, but the goal proved to be nothing but a consolation for Chile as the Argentines were deserved winners on the night.
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That missed chance set the tone for the early exchanges of an entertaining first half, which saw Argentina create the lion’s share of opportunities without managing to find a breakthrough goal. But in the 51st minute, Argentina won the ball high in midfield, as it would several times to spring counterattacks. The striker was free of defenders while sending a left-footed shot toward the inside of the near post. “Whether Messi plays or doesn’t play, our soccer will not change”. He didn’t get to catch up with Golden State Warriors superstar MVP Stephen Curry, who instead offered his well wishes after a Game 2 NBA Finals win against Cleveland. With both of them going forward, Argentina will continue to create meaningful chance after meaningful chance.
