Martinez scores late as Argentina beat Colombia to seal 16th Copa title

Argentina defeated Colombia 1-0 in the final of the Copa America CONMEBOL and lifted the trophy of the best. With this, Argentina achieved excellence in Latin America for the second time in a row. Albiceleste has won the title 16 times in the history of CONMEBOL.

Colombia, who reached the final after 23 years, took on reigning champions Argentina at Miami’s Hard Rock Stadium, however, Néstor Lorenzo’s disciples got a bitter taste of defeat by 1-0 in the match. Lautaro Martínez scored the only winning goal for Albiceleste.

Argentina tasted excellence in this victory. They have won three consecutive international titles. Lionel Scaloni’s boys won the last World Cup along with two continental tournaments.

Argentina went on the attack at the beginning of the match. In the first minute of the match, Julián Álvarez’s header from Gonzalo Montiel’s cross missed the left side of the goal and went wide. After that, Luis Díaz in the 5th minute and Carlos Cuesta in the 13th minute made two attacks for Colombia.

In the 20th minute, Lionel Messi took a left-footed shot from Di Maria’s cross. However, Colombia’s goalkeeper Camilo Vargas blocked Messi’s shot. Colombia made a great attack in the 32nd minute, however, Argentina’s defenders blocked it, though Colombia got the corner. However, Argentinian goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez palmed the ball away from the corner kick.

After three minutes, Argentina attacked again. Messi was trying to advance with the ball by dribbling Colombia’s defenders inside the D-box. In the end, he could not take a shot at the target. The ball goes out of bounds. Messi has to get injured. However, he did not leave the field.

In the 40th minute, Colombia’s Jhon Arias took a header from Rodriguez’s cross, but the ball went to the right side. Argentina gets a free-kick in the 42nd minute. Messi took the kick from there. Argentina’s Nicolás Tagliafico’s header goes over the bar in the D-box. Finally, both teams had to go to the break without scoring.

Colombia started playing aggressively in the second half. In the 47th minute, Santiago Arias’ quick right-footed shot went wide of the goalpost. After that, Argentina went to counterattack. Di Maria’s left-footed shot from Alexis Mac Allister’s assist was blocked by the Colombian goalkeeper.

Colombia created another chance to score in the 54th minute. Davinson Sánchez’s header goes over the bar. Jhon Córdoba assisted him with a header from a corner kick. The incident in the 64th minute will probably remain a sad memory for Argentine football. 

When the team is in disarray in the attack, Argentina’s lifer Lionel Messi has to suffer an injury. He injured himself while running. The star footballer’s injury was so severe that tears were almost coming out of his eyes.

However, no one fouled Messi. After that, Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni could not keep him on the field. He brought Nicolás González into the field as Messi’s substitute.

Argentina got the ball in the net in the 75th minute of the match. Messi substitute González scored the ball into the net, but it was ruled out for offside. Argentina missed a golden opportunity in the 88th minute. Di Maria’s cross was headed in front of the goal bar by Nico González. However, Julián Álvarez could not reach in time. 

At the last minute, Argentina created several opportunities in a row in the Colombian D-box. But Di Maria could not take any chance. The match remained scoreless even after the scheduled 90 minutes. As a result, the match went into extra time. 

The first half of extra time remained scoreless, but in the 7th minute of the second half, i.e. in the 112th minute, Lautaro Martínez made the Argentina team including their huge fans happy with the goal. Albiceleste’s victory was confirmed by his goal.