Paris Saint-Germain star Angel Di Maria inspired Argentina to a 2-1 win over Chile in Copa America action on Monday night.
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Jose Pedro Fuenzalida scored in the third minute of stoppage time as Chile avoided a shutout.
Blas Perez scored twice as Panama began their first-ever Copa America campaign with a 2-1 Group D victory over Bolivia.
The Argentina captain hurt his back in an worldwide friendly against Honduras on May 27 and is unlikely to start on Monday in his country’s opener against Chile at the Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California.
The two teams played to a scoreless draw in the first half, but both had chances to score.
You know how the saying goes: Another day, another national anthem mishap at a Copa America game.
The Argentine attack was speedy and unrelenting, if a little disjointed, as Di Maria and Banega – and Nicolas Gaitain – had the Chilean on their heels much of the game.
“He is kicking the ball better and we expect that in four days he will be in condition to play”, said Martino.
Moments later Di Maria then set up Argentina’s second for Ever Banega, to complete a man-of-the-match performance.
Argentina doubled their lead eight minutes later in similar fashion, this time Di Maria feeding Banega in the same position on the left and his deflected drive beat Chile goalkeeper Claudio Bravo at his near post.
Panama hopes to pull off another shocker after beating Bolivia, 2-1, in its opening match.
The 35-year-old Perez had opened the scoring in the 11th minute before Bolivia fought back after the break with Juan Arce bringing them level in the 54th minute – only for Perez to strike again three minutes from the end.
“Those are very important circumstances and aspects of life that transcend football”, Gerardo Martino said.
“It is different if Messi is playing or not”, he said. “We’re going to continue working and we have the belief to move to the next round”.
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That will make the upcoming two games in Group D, against Argentina and Chile, even more special for the Panama City born forward.
