Venezuela vs. Argentina: Messi’s team begin tricky journey
Lionel Messi and Argentina will hope to book a coveted spot in the 2019 Copa America semi-finals, but first they will have to beat Venezuela.
For Messi, this could be his last chance to finally win a senior international title with Argentina. Despite all his success with Barcelona, one major criticism leveled at the five-time Ballon d’Or winner is his lack of silverware when playing for Argentina.
He’s featured in three straight finals – the 2014 World Cup, the 2015 Copa America, and a special edition of the Copa America staged in 2016 to honor the 100th year of its inception. Three finals, zero victories. After the 2016 Copa America, he decided to retire from the team, only to return to help his team qualify for the 2018 World Cup.
However, La Albiceleste struggled at last year’s tournament, shockingly losing to Croatia and drawing with minnows Iceland before being knocked out by eventual winners France in the round of 16. Following that disappointment, he announced a second retirement but was convinced to return once again for the upcoming Copa America competition.
It’s not been a great tournament so far for Messi and Argentina, though, who needed a 2-0 win over Qatar to book their spot in the quarter-finals. The Barcelona ace has one goal so far – a penalty to equalize against Paraguay – and they opened up their campaign with a heavy 2-0 defeat to Colombia. That doesn’t look promising, especially as they will have to take on none other than Brazil in the next round if they can beat Venezuela.
Venezuela, for their part, also finished second in their group, and will be eager to end their frustrating hoodoo against Argentina at Copa America tournaments. They’re notably unbeaten in their last three ties against Argentina across all competitions (W1 D2) which is a remarkable improvement considering that they had lost a whopping 20 out of their prior 21 meetings, winning just once.
That being said, they have never beaten Argentina at a Copa America tournament, and have scored just three times in those five meetings whilst shipping a demoralizing 28 goals. Messi also does have a knack for troubling Venezuela, as he’s scored four times and contributed to six assists, meaning that he’s been directly involved in ten goals versus La Vinotinto.
Still, the country’s all-time top goalscorer, Salomon Rondon, will be eager to end that strong run. Venezuela did beat Argentina in their last meeting, a confidence-boosting 3-1 result in a friendly clash earlier this year and they ensured that La Albiceleste only earned two points from their World Cup qualifying clashes.
So will this game be the start of Messi’s journey towards international redemption? Or will yet another major tournament end in disappointment with Venezuela finally picking up a first Copa America win against a familiar opponent?
