On the morning of July 10, Messi scored his first goal at Copa America 2024, helping the Argentine team once again defeat the Canadian team in the semi-finals with a 2-0 victory, winning the right to enter the final to defend the championship.
Messi and his Argentina teammates only had a few problems early on against Canada , an opponent they had met and beaten 2-0 on the opening day of the group stage.
It felt like, against a familiar and inferior opponent, the Argentine players still had not given their all. After a period of initially probing the opponent’s playing style. In the 24th minute, from a sudden attack from the middle, midfielder De Paul sent a sharp pass that opened up the entire Canadian defense. Striker Julain Alvarez appeared right in front of the penalty area with a delicate touch, passing defender Moise Bombito, before coldly shooting past goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau to open the score 1-0 for the Argentine team.
The performance was not really impressive, but the class of the Argentina team showed at the right time to create an advantage.
Up front, Messi and his close teammate Di Maria were very active and wide. This pair of veteran stars made it very difficult for the Canadian defenders to stop them. This also created conditions for other players of the Argentine team such as Alvarez, Enzo Fernandez and Mac Allister to have more space to create scoring opportunities.
After the opening goal, in the first half, if Messi and Di Maria had finished more accurately on the delicious opportunities created by their teammates, the Argentina team could have increased the score gap to 2-0 or 3-0.
However, in the 51st minute of the second half, Messi increased the score to 2-0 after a rather lucky goal. Starting from an attack organized by Messi himself, the ball was sent into the penalty area after a quick combination with De Paul. The Canadian defenders managed to block it, but the ball reached Enzo Fernandez right in front of the penalty area, allowing this midfielder to shoot hard to score.
However, before the ball entered the net, it touched Messi’s foot and changed direction. The referee and VAR checked the goal and recognized this goal for Messi, because when the ball touched his foot and entered the net, the 37-year-old player, after moving into the 5.50 m area, was still standing on a Canadian defender.
This is Messi’s first goal at Copa America 2024 and his 14th goal after 7 appearances in a record 38 matches. Thereby, helping him equal the scoring record of 2 players Paolo Guerrero (Peru team) and Eduardo Vargas (Chile), who also scored 14 goals at Copa America.
This goal was also Messi’s 109th goal for the Argentina national team after 186 matches in international tournaments, officially surpassing former player Ali Daei (Iran) to become the second person to score the most goals in the history of world football. He is currently only behind Cristiano Ronaldo (scored 130 goals). Ronaldo just played in EURO 2024, but the 39-year-old Portuguese player did not score any goals to increase the record.
Messi is still playing in the Copa America 2024 with the final against Colombia or Uruguay at 7am on July 15, to have more opportunities to narrow the goal gap with Ronaldo and set another record in the South American football tournament. Meanwhile, the Canadian team, who lost to Argentina in the semi-finals, will be consoled with the third-place match at 7am on July 14.
