Argentina narrowly won against Chile, Messi and his teammates won the first ticket to the 2024 Copa America quarter-finals.
At the beginning of the match, Argentina completely dominated the first half. Argentina’s attackers even brought the ball to Chile’s goal post when luck was not yet on Messi and his teammates.
In the second half, the game continued to belong to defending champion Argentina, but situations were unfortunately missed.
In the 61st minute of the match, Nicolas Gonzalez had a quick shot and goalkeeper Bravo almost had to go into the net to pick up the ball while standing still. Luckily for Chile, the ball then regrettably bounced off the bar.
Before entering the official final 15 minutes of the match, stars Lautaro Martinez and Angel Di Maria were sent onto the field, increasing the strength of the attack. At the end of the half, the referee missed two fouls inside and near the penalty area from both teams.
In the 88th minute, Martinez – who came on from the bench – spoke up to break the deadlock. In the second consecutive corner taken by Messi, Martinez took the opportunity to score and tear the opponent’s net from the ball that bounced out when goalkeeper Bravo blocked it.
However, the anxiety of Argentine players and fans only subsided after a period of time when the referee consulted with the VAR team.
Some time later, Chile was forced to push their squad higher into Argentina’s home field.
In the last minute of extra time, Di Maria had a counter-attack, Martinez had a chance to score twice when facing the goalkeeper but his shot was blocked by goalkeeper Bravo’s effort.
Previously, Canada won 1-0 when facing Peru to win the first place to take second place in the group after two matches.
With this result, Argentina continues to hold the top spot in the group with 2 wins (6 points) and officially won the first ticket to the 2024 Copa America knockout round.
