Argentina tops Chile 2-1 in last year’s Copa final rematch

Messi is now nursing a back injury that he suffered in the friendly victory over Honduras on May 27th.

Argentina takes on Chile in a Group D Copa America Centenario opening round match, Monday, June 6, in nearby Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

With Messi watching from the sidelines due to a back injury, Di Maria put the 14-times champions ahead early in the second half before Ever Banega doubled their lead shortly after.

Lionel Messi struggled to get to his feet and left Argentina’s friendly against Honduras with an apparent injury. Messi is bidding to end Argentina’s 23-year trophy drought after a series of agonising near-misses in recent years which saw the Albiceleste beaten in both the 2014 World Cup final and 2015 Copa America final.

Martino confirmed that Benfica’s Nicolas Gaitan would start in place of Messi if the Barcelona superstar was not fit.

“Gaitan doesn’t have to play as good as Leo, but he has to play his game”, Martino said.

The match is expected to be one the great ones, just like the Mexico vs. Uruguay, and although Chile is an extremely strong contender, Argentina is expected to win. The forward trained separately from the group on Friday and Saturday and will be hoping to get back on the field.

“The possibility of a final in this Copa America between the same teams, won’t give us an opportunity of revenge; it will give us a new opportunity”.

After a scoreless first half, it only took six minutes for Argentina to break the deadlock following the interval. Then 12 months later it was a loss on penalties in the Copa America final to hosts Chile.

Chile had lost most number of matches out of their five games and had won just once against Venezuela.

“For a long time, our strategy has been to think about ourselves not to think about what teams are favored or what teams play better than other teams or what teams have the best forwards”.

With Lionel Messi playing against them, the Chilean soccer team doesn’t have any chance at all in today’s match. The two most recent winners of this tournament - Uruguay in 2011 and Chile in 2015 - fostered an unbreakable spirit that was insurmountable from the very outset (in the latter’s case, it withstood Arturo Vidal almost killing himself in a drunk-driving incident).