Among South American representatives, Chile is probably one of the most hated opponents in the eyes of striker Lionel Messi. This team has twice “got in the way” of Messi, causing his huge trophy collection to date to only have one Copa America championship.
During his illustrious career, he won the national championship at the club level many times. In addition, he was crowned four times in the Champions League and won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina.
In South America alone, the Inter Miami striker has participated in the Copa America 7 times. He recently set a record for the number of appearances in this tournament (35) when he appeared in the match Argentina defeated Canada 2 goals without reply. Although he just broke the 71-year record of Sergio Livingstone (Chile, 34 appearances in Copa America), Messi has only won the South American championship exactly once.
His performance could have been better if Argentina had not consecutively lost to Chile in the Copa America finals in 2015 and 2016. In both of these matches, Chile held Argentina 0-0 before beating Argentina. Defeat your opponent with an 11 meter kick competition.
Those were truly difficult defeats for Messi to swallow. That’s why, after missing a penalty kick that caused Argentina to lose 2-4 to Chile in a tense “shootout” series in 2016, the striker born in 1987 was so disappointed that
You should know, throughout his career Messi has scored 13 goals in Copa America. 5 of them were goals in the tournament taking place in the US in 2016. Unfortunately, despite having the “luckiest” Copa America, Messi still could not help Argentina collect debt from Chile after the defeat in 2015.
In addition to having received a red card after a collision with Gary Medel (Copa America 2019 third place match), it is clear that Chile is truly a hated opponent for Messi.
Messi highly appreciates coach Ricardo Gareca
After Argentina’s 2-0 victory over Canada, Messi appeared quite cautious when talking about the Tango team’s next match as follows: “In the immediate future we will rest and recharge. energy and prepare for the match with Chile. The whole team knows that Argentina is in a very difficult group, in which Chile is a really dangerous opponent. I appreciate coach Ricardo Gareca Not long after, he created a competitive and powerful team.”
