Lionel Messi publicly showed his indignation at the state of the pitch in Venezuela

The South American Qualifiers They continue to leave good games that denote the demands of the region. On the one hand, Colombia loses to Bolivia in the controversial El Alto Municipal Stadium; on the other, Argentina and Venezuela tie at the Monumental Stadium in Maturín with terrible field conditions. Lionel Messi did not hide his annoyance.

Argentina went to visit La Vinotinto in Maturín. Before the game it rained heavily in the area where the game was going to take place and This left the stadium’s layout visibly affected. Drainage was not effective and this was evident on the field.

After the game, Lionel Messi did not miss the opportunity to highlight this condition. The Argentine justified the tie in these limitations of the stadium that conditioned the Albiceleste’s game.

“It was very difficult. The game was very ugly, very hard work, we couldn’t make two passes in a row (…). It’s difficult to play like that,” said Lionel Messi after the game.

Venezuela was better

13 minutes into the first halfNicolás Otamendi put Argentina ahead with a rebound goal after a clearance in the middle by goalkeeper Rafa Romo. Everything seemed like it would lead to a difficult Albiceleste victory, but Venezuela went to find the match.

“The court, really, that didn’t help us do what we want to do. We had to play a game that we had not prepared for,” Messi added.

At minute 65, after an overflow by Yeferson Soteldo, Venezuela found the equalizer with a goal from José Salomón Rondón. But Fernando Batista’s team showed some signs of superiority.

La Vinotinto had up to 16 shots, compared to the 8 made by the Argentine team. In corner kicks, the Venezuelan team also doubled the production of the Albiceleste (8 corners for Venezuela and 4 for Argentina).

Lionel Messi continued to justify Argentina’s discreet performance due to the conditions of the Maturín Monumental Stadium. The Inter Miami player had up to 19 lost possessions and only made one key pass throughout the game.

“We played a game of fighting, of second ball, of winning the duels, of playing with the opponent’s mistakes and not risking too much ourselves, because we couldn’t play behind. We made a couple of backward passes and the ball stopped in the water. (…) We played the game we had to play on the field,” he concluded.

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