Lionel Messi was left "very angry" with his miss in Argentina's penalty shoot-out victory over Ecuador in the Copa America quarter-finals.(More Football News)
🐷La Albiceleste progressed to the semi-finals after a dramatic contest at the NRG Stadium in a game where Kevin Rodriguez's injury-time leveller ensured the contest would go the distance in a 1-1 draw after Lisandro Martinez's first-half opener.
The legendary Messi was first to step up for his team but saw a dinked penalty hit the crossbar. Thankfully for the 37-year-old, Emiliano Martinez saved penalties from Angel Mena and Alan Minda as Argentina triumphed 4-2 in the shoot-out.
🌠Speaking after the game, Messi told reporters: "I was very angry, I was convinced that I would take it like that.
𒐪"I had spoken with Dibu (Martinez), with (Geronimo) Rulli, I had taken a couple of penalties. I hadn't practised, but I spoke with them.
ღ"I had been taking several cross-shots, in fact the goalkeeper dived for a cross-shot, I tried to touch it and it went high."
🍃Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni was quick to absolve his talisman of any blame when addressing a press conference.
𓄧"He played like the rest of the team, we are a team. This is a team, if the team played well, he played well. We have never separated the individual from the collective," he said.
♊Messi missed Argentina's final group game against Peru through injury but Scaloni insists that did not have an impact on his performance, adding: "Leo had a good game, in the end, they also planned a game or system where when we had the ball, two defenders came to attack, so, this is a chess game. He has had seven days away, we didn't notice the inactivity mentioned in the question."
🎉Martinez was named Player of the Match and has now won all four of the shoot-outs he has been involved in with Argentina. The Aston Villa goalkeeper is adamant there is no luck involved with that statistic.
ಌ"I work for that, I throw myself 500 times a day in training," Martinez said.
💟"I try to be at my best level for the national team because the country deserves it, the people who spend their money to come and watch us."
