Argentina maintained its winning momentum in Matchday 2 of the 2024 Copa America against Group A rivals Chile. The World Champions struggled until the end to secure a hard-fought narrow victory against their formidable rivals. But the talking point of the match remains Lionel Messi who once again gave an injury scare during the match. Luckily, head coach Lionel Scaloni has something to say about the skipper’s alleged discomfort.

During the post-match presser, when questioned about Messi’s injury during the course of the match, the La Albiceleste boss replied, “I did not communicate with Messi at the time, but he played until the end.” It seems like Scaloni has yet to investigate with La Pulga about his worrying moment on the pitch. Though the manager has faith that since the 37-year-old played the whole 90 minutes, he should be just fine, Argentina isn’t taking any risks when it comes to their No. 10.

As per @TyCSports on X, Messi will undergo some tests in the next few hours. The medical team will determine the exact cause of the discomfort in order to avoid a potential injury. Notably, the incident transpired just around the 23rd minute of the match. Messi was playing a backward pass near the sidelines as Chilean left-back Gabriel Suazo came and gave a strong push to the Inter Miami star, who went down.

Although the challenge was fair, the Argentinian skipper’s adductor of the right leg made strong contact with Suazo’s knees, causing him a bit of distress. The former PSG man was seen receiving medical treatment from the medics but managed to continue for the rest of the match. However, resuming the game saw Messi achieve little, as despite dominating against Chile, Argentina struggled to secure a convincing win.

Lionel Messi and Argentina failed to capitalize against an underwhelming Chile

While the scoreline would suggest it was a tough contest, the numbers showcase a different narrative. 22 shots were taken by Lionel Scaloni’s men, out of which 9 were on target. This is quite remarkable, compared to Ricardo Gareca’s side producing just a total of 3 shots, with all of them being on target. This suggests that Argentina had the ball for the majority of the time and surely they did, finishing the game with 62% possession compared to Chile’s 38%.

Even after these statistics, Messi and his teammates couldn’t increase the scoreline. Not just the first half but the match beyond the hour mark remained a goalless affair until, in the 88th minute, striker Lautaro Martinez finally broke the deadlock and scored the winning goal for Argentina. Despite the victory, the day turned out to be quite lackluster. However, concerns linger regarding Lionel Messi’s potential injury scare. Let’s hope it doesn’t turn out any worse for him.