By Edgardo Avelar
With two goals from international star Lionel Messi from Inter Miami of the MLS and two more from Lautaro Martínez of Inter Milan of Serie A in Italy, the Argentine team, current world champion, completed the process of the match against Guatemala in a positive way with a 4-1 win facing the Copa America 2024 in a duel held at the FedExField stadium in the city of Landover, Maryland.
The Argentine star played the 90 minutes, showing that he is at his peak against a Central American team led by Mexican Luis Fernando Tena who tried to be a high-ranking rival, but ended up succumbing to the world champions with errors as serious as the one made by their goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen when he gave the ball in his clearance at the feet of the Argentine star.
Argentina recovered from a hesitant start with Lisandro Martínez’s own goal in the 4th minute, which generated a bit of distrust in the world champions. but as the game progressed things became more regulated and they ended up passing over the Central Americans.
The Albiceleste did not take long to tie in a regrettable play in which goalkeeper Nicholas Hagen, combining with his defenses, He gave the ball to Messi who, with no mark and an empty goal, just had to pushr the ball into the nets.
From there, Argentina took control of the ball with an average of 75 percent possession in the first half, but failed to generate chances. of danger until approaching half-time, when the Guatemalan resistance began to unravel.
The South Americans went ahead on the scoreboard when Valentín Carboni entered the area and Nicolás Samayoa He knocked him down too fast and the American referee did not hesitate to award a maximum penalty.
The second half was something else. Argentina dominated and wasted chances to leave with a larger score, especially since Lionel Scaloni changed the midfield with the entry of Ángel Di María, Rodrigo De Paul and Leandro Paredes.
Lautaro Martínez scored the third for the Albiceleste in the 66th minute, assisted by Messi and eleven minutes in the 77th, Messi scored the fourth alone against the goalkeeper thanks to an assist from Di María. The ’10’ was at the center of the Argentine association game.
Argentina changed a lot with the entry of Di María, since he brought a lot of danger to the Argentine attack and ‘el Fideo’ almost scored the goal of the match with a spectacular bicycle kick from the penalty spot that Hagel was able to deflect with the fingers of one hand.
In this way, everything was ready for Argentina to debut next Thursday against Canada in the Copa América 2024.
It should be noted that Lionel Scaloni left Leo Balerdi, Germán Pezzella and Marcos Acuña out of the call. The coach has to rule out three players in the next few hours to form the final list of 26 for the Copa América that will be known in the next few hours.
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