The captain of the Argentine national team was the only player from the Tango country to miss a penalty in the match against Ecuador this morning (July 5). The Inter Miami star spoke out about this missed penalty.
In the quarter-final match of Copa America 2024 in the US against Ecuador, Argentina won 4-2 in the penalty shootout, after the two sides drew 1-1 in the official match. However, Messi was the one who missed the first 11m kick of the Argentina team.
The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner kicked the ball in a Panenka style (chip the ball into the middle of the goal), but the ball hit the crossbar and went out.
Messi almost became the sinner of the Argentina team (Photo: Getty).
After the match, Messi spoke up: “Actually, I practiced penalty kicks a lot with goalkeepers Martinez and Rulli (the number one and number two goalkeepers of the Argentina team). During the training sessions, I mainly shot diagonally to the two corners.”
“This time I saw the opposing goalkeeper heading towards the corner of the goal, I shot towards the middle but the force of the shot was a bit strong, the ball went higher than I expected,” Messi added.
According to Messi, the Argentine team had prepared for the penalty shootout before the match. Penalty shootouts are a common occurrence in Copa America knockout matches.
Messi missed the shot but Argentina still won (Photo: Getty).
The format of this tournament is very different, the quarter-finals and semi-finals, as well as the third-place match, do not have extra time, if the two teams are tied after two regular periods, the two sides will immediately take penalty kicks. With this format, the probability of penalty kicks for the teams participating in Copa America is very high.
Messi said: “I told my teammates that we have to be calm if the match goes to penalties. We have a lot of faith in goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez. I know he is always there in important moments.”
“It’s great that Emiliano Martinez is there. He’s great in goal,” Messi praised his junior goalkeeper in the Argentina national team.
On the side of coach Scaloni, the coach of the Argentine team shared: “I am confident with my team’s penalty shootout players. I listed 5 names to take the 11m kicks and everyone agreed.”
“My players are always confident in penalty shootouts, they have overcome these shootouts several times. That’s good,” coach Scaloni was delighted after Argentina won and reached the semi-finals.
