Lionel Messi failed to take a penalty kick. If goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez had not been excellent, Argentina would have been disappointed at Copa America 22024. After the match, he shared the reason for this missed kick.
The moment Messi stepped up to the spot, everyone expected him to score to open up a favorable penalty shootout for Argentina. But many were also worried that he would miss, because in the US in 2016, the superstar had once missed. In the 2016 Copa America final, Messi shot into the air, causing Argentina to lose the final to Chile.
But that was when Sergio Romero was in goal. This time, the defender of the Argentine goal is Emiliano Martinez, a penalty specialist with consecutive successful saves at Copa America 2021, World Cup 2022.
In the end, although Messi missed the shot, thanks to two excellent shots from Emiliano Martinez, Argentina won 4-2, thereby entering the semi-finals. After the match, Messi spoke up.
Messi explained the reason behind his decision to kick the panenka into the middle of the goal: “I was angry, I believed I had done well. I spoke to Dibu (Emilliano Martinez) that I had taken a few penalties. I had not trained for this shootout, but I spoke to the goalkeepers.
I had a few cross shots. In fact, the Ecuadorian goalkeeper was flying to meet the cross shot. I tried to chip the ball, and it went too high.”
Messi also admitted that he had suffered a muscle injury before the match. And that prevented him from playing at his best. “I spent the whole week trying to get rid of the discomfort. I tried to train little by little. I felt a little scared, but gradually I relaxed. In the last training sessions, I felt better and I thought I could play.”
Meanwhile, Emiliano Martinez shared that he was not worried after Messi missed the shot. According to this goalkeeper, his Argentina “is not ready to go home”.
“I told everyone that I was not ready to go home. Even though we are world champions and South American champions, we still deserved to get through this round to go deep,” Martinez said.
