His teammates, especially midfielder Ever Banega, helped with that, Banega setting up Di Maria’s score before adding a goal of his own.
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Straight away Di Maria ran towards the Albiceleste bench where he was handed a t-shirt revealing his tribute to his grandmother, a message declaring, “Grandma, I will miss you so much”.
And it’s for this reason that Di Maria – an inarguably inferior player to Messi – is Argentina’s most important fixture even if he could never be the same thing for Barcelona.
When they last met in Copa America, it was last summer to decide a champion, and host Chile came out on top.
Compare that to Messi, who is a two-time Copa America runner-up and a 2014 World Cup finalist as pressure builds on the 107-cap veteran to end Argentina’s 23-year wait for an global trophy of any sort with a 15th continental crown. Banega took the ball off Charles Aranguiz, advanced to the penalty arc, and released Di Maria on the left, Di Maria finishing with a shot past Bravo in the 51st minute, dedicating the goal to his grandmother, who died Monday. In a way, Gaitan had improved the balance of the squad and reduced the dependency on a single player.
And the game was played at a relentless pace from the start with the likes of Di Maria and Sanchez trying to make an impact for their respective teams.
Argentina posed a constant threat with fast sweeps forward and Di Maria capitalised on one such attack after 50 minutes, running on to a pass from Banega to slot home from eight yards.
The two teams played to a scoreless draw in the first half, but both had chances to score.
13′ – A thrilling opening 10 minutes – more exciting than the vast majority of the United States of America vs. Colombia match three days earlier – was punctuated by a clever kick-out by Argentina head coach Gerardo Martino on a ball out of bounds.
Martino expects Messi to play Friday, and was proud of how his players responded to Messi’s absence Monday.
“We were able to put on pressure very early”, said Martino. We sincerely apologize to the Uruguayan Federation, the Uruguay National Team, the people of Uruguay and to the fans for this mistake.
“I am delighted with this win which is historic given it is our first victory in a Copa America game”, said Panama’s Colombian coach Hernan Dario Gomez.
Needless to say, this did not play well with the fans, and their reactions were priceless. “We want him so we can have a lovely game”.
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“We believe we’re going to get into the next round”, he said.
