Roger Martinez and Duvan Zapata scored as Colombia beat Argentina 2-0 in their first match of the Copa America 2019.
The game was intense and had a number of big names playing in both the teams, including the likes of Lionel Messi, Sergio Aguero, Di Maria, Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez and others. However, the game changers were their substitutes for Colombia.
Roger Martinez came in for the injured Luis Muriel and scored a thunderous goal, thumping the Argentine net. The goal came in the 71st minute breaking the deadlock.
The first half was controlled by Colombia and Argentina failed in attacking much, resulting in doing all the defending for the fierce Colombian attacks. Argentina got back their flow in second half with Lionel Messi recieving more balls and creating from deep. Argentina had more shots on target than Colombia but their stopper Ospina stood strong like a wall.
A massive brawl was started in the middle of the field when Juan Cuadrado foul tackled Messi. He was shown a yellow card for the same.
Atalanta striker Duvan Zapata, who came in as a substitute scored from a cross from Jefferson Lerma in the 86th minute making the score 2-0 and sealing the win for Colombia.
Messi said after the match“This is not the way we wanted to begin,” . “There was a little bit of nerves, of wanting to have a good debut, of not wanting to commit mistakes.”
“We have to keep our heads high and think about what’s next, because this is just the beginning and there’s still a lot of Copa to be played,” He added.
Colombia captain Falcao had high praise for the Argentine captain Messi after the match.
“[Argentina] is always a very difficult opponent and they have the best player in the world,” Falcao said. “We had the challenge of beating them for the first time after a long time. We’re in a maturation process and we were close, and we knew this was a good opportunity.”