Lionel Messi scored a beautiful free-kick goal, but it was not enough to prevent Argentina from drawing with Chile 1-1 this morning in the opening match of the group stage of the 2021 Copa America in Rio de Janeiro. Paraguay kicked off their campaign with a convincing 3-1 win against a depleted Bolivia. Messi, the star of Barcelona, gave his team a well-deserved lead after about half an hour of play, but Eduardo Vargas equalized for Chile early in the second half, following up on a penalty kick from teammate Arturo Vidal that was saved by goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez.
Despite Argentina's dominance in a rough match, Messi lamented, saying, "We weren't calm, we didn't control the ball." However, his coach Lionel Scaloni viewed things differently, stating, "We deserved to win, but in the end, we drew. In any case, we are at the beginning of a very difficult tournament."
Before the match in Group A, which featured Paraguay's victory over Bolivia, the Argentine legend Diego Maradona, who passed away last November at the age of 60 due to health complications, was honored, even though the stands at the Nelson Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro were empty due to restrictions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Argentina had drawn the same scoreline with Chile about ten days ago in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, also opening the scoring through Messi from a penalty before Alexis Sánchez, who missed Monday's match due to a muscle injury, equalized. Chile had denied the Argentine national team the title twice in recent years through penalty shootouts in the finals of 2015 and 2016.
Messi had an early chance eight minutes into the match, but his flying shot missed the target after a sequence initiated by Leandro Paredes and left-back Nicolás Tagliafico. Argentina translated their superiority into a leading goal in the 33rd minute when Messi, a six-time world player of the year, scored with a curling free-kick from 25 yards, finding the top left corner of Bravo's goal. Argentina almost added a second goal, but Lautaro shot carelessly after a pass from defender Gonzalo Montiel.
Chile began the second half trying to equalize, with Eric Pulgar playing to Vargas inside the box, but goalkeeper Martínez saved his shot. Vidal, the Inter Milan player, attempted a shot from a rebound, but Tagliafico fouled him while he was trying to score. After a review by the Video Assistant Referee (VAR), referee Wilmar Roldan awarded a penalty kick. Martínez saved Vidal's powerful shot with the help of the crossbar, but Vargas was quickest to follow up and slot the ball into the net (57).
In the second match in Goiânia, Bolivia opened the scoring early with a penalty converted by Erwin Saavedra (10). However, Paraguay turned the match around in the second half, taking advantage of the red card shown to Jaume Cuéllar at the end of the first half. They equalized with a beautiful long-range shot by Alejandro Romero (62) before Ángel Romero gave them the lead with a close-range goal (65) and added a third goal from individual effort on the left side (80), putting his team at the top of the group.
