Lautaro Martínez scored from a rebound in the 88th minute to give the defending champions a 1-0 victory over Chile on Tuesday night (June 25). This victory secured Argentina’s spot in the Copa América quarterfinals.
On Argentina’s 21st shot of the match, Martínez scored his second goal of the tournament after Messi’s corner kick was saved by goalkeeper Claudio Bravo.
Goalscorer Martínez told TyC Sports after the game,
“These matches are always like this, we have to continue in the same way, treating the matches in this way, as they are all going to be complicated.”
“But we are happy that at the end of the day we ended up taking the three points, which is what we wanted to start with.”
While a video review confirmed Martnez’s 26th goal for the national team, players stood and waited for three minutes for the final decision.
With six points, Argentina leads Group A, followed by Canada with three and Chile and Peru with one point each. The Albiceleste completes the first round against Peru at Miami Gardens, Florida, on Saturday, while Canada meets Chile in Orlando, Florida.
In front of an adoring sellout crowd of 81,106 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey—the venue for the 2026 World Cup final—and playing a day after his 37th birthday, Messi was all over the opposing defenders. Chile’s first attempt came in the 72nd minute, but Argentina outshot Chile 21-3 in shots and 11-0 in corner kicks.
Before Martínez’s goal, Messi came closest to scoring with a 30-yard shot that missed the post to Bravo’s left in the 36th minute. After being kicked by Gabriel Suazo in the 24th, Messi had been receiving treatment for nearly two minutes on the right leg’s thigh area.
Bravo parried Nicolás González’s shot off the crossbar in the 62nd minute from another Messi pass.
Before Rodrigo Echeverria’s 72nd-minute attempt after a turnover was saved by Emiliano Martnez, Argentina outshot Chile 17-0. In the 76th, the goalkeeper made a second diving stop on Echeverra.
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The teams returned to the stadium where Chile defeated Argentina on penalties in the 2016 Copa América final to commemorate Argentina’s first World Cup victory. Messi announced his international retirement as a result of that defeat, only to reverse his decision seven weeks later.
In his 150th international appearance, Bravo, the oldest player in Copa América history at 41, made eight saves. While leading their respective teams onto the field for the anthems, he and Messi, who used to be teammates at Barcelona, talked to each other.
On a grass field that had been installed at a stadium where artificial turf is typically the surface, there were a few small brown spots behind one goal. Construction was scheduled to make room for a wider field for the World Cup, but the surface was narrow.
