Saturday’s defeat will reignite the debate about where Messi deserves to be ranked in the pantheon of the very greatest players to have graced the sport.
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In the shootout, Matias Fernandez, Vidal and Charles Aranguiz all netted for Chile, while Messi scored Argentina’s lone goal in the team’s first attempt.
They reached the last 16 in both competitions, but more than half of Sampaoli’s team that won the Copa America beating Argentina on penalties after their goalless stalemate had played in Bielsa’s team in South Africa five years ago. “This generation of players deserved this”. “That’s why we played with heart”.
Thousands of fans went on the streets of Santiago to celebrate the triumph.
“Right now I do not care nothing, not about my prize, nothing”.
Argentine global Angel Di Maria has said that he has no intention of moving to European Champions Barcelona, no matter how much his team-mates joke with him about the situation.
And that, as Wenger says, is on top of last summer’s World Cup, which followed a demanding season for Barcelona. Chile? Too many shady moments, especially in the quarterfinals and semifinals, getting help from referees that cast a very disgusting cloud of doubt over this whole tournament and its validity, or at least over one team.
“The idea of the match was to neutralize their important players, including the best player in the world”, he said.
Tevez would have broken his leg to put in that low-fizzing cross from Ezequiel Lavezzi if it meant winning the Copa America.
Chile were eliminated from the World Cup in Brazil past year in a penalty shoot-out with the hosts, and Bravo believes that held them in good stead this time around.
A similar situation unfolded at the Brazil World Cup, when having just lost the biggest game in football after single handedly dragging Argentina to the final, Messi was forced to parade his Golden Ball trophy next to a beaming Manuel Neuer, who clutched the alchemised body of Thing. After his refusal, other players from the team were asked to accept the award.
“We will just keep trying”, Argentina coach Gerardo Martino said.
But there was little of the problems and protests that plagued some host cities for 2014 World Cup in Brazil or Africa’s Nations Cup earlier this year.
They beat Uruguay 1-0 in the quarterfinals, the match that involved Edinson Cavani unfairly sent off while Gonzalo Jara (by now suspended from the tournament) kind of sexually molested him.
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The Internacional midfielder is joined by fellow countryman Vidal, who started every game at the tournament despite being arrested for drink driving during the group stages.
