Villa faced off against Group B No. 1 Peru.
Mexico, ranked first in Group C, will face Chile, ranked second in Group D, and Venezuela, ranked second in Group C, will face Argentina, ranked first in Group D.
On June 17, the first two knockout matches were played one after another. The United States took advantage of the host nation and defeated Ecuador 2-1 to advance to the semi-finals. Colombia defeated Peru in a penalty shootout to advance to the semi-finals.
Next, on June 18, it will be the turn of the other two knockout matches. The first one will be Argentina’s match against Venezuela.
For Argentina, there is no problem in facing the second place in other groups, but Gerardo Martino still sent out a full lineup and went all out.
Messi, Aguero, Di Maria, Velarde, Mascherano, Otamendi, etc., all started, ready to attack with all their strength.
At 19:00 on the evening of June 18, amid the applause of more than 60,000 fans at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, the 2016 Centenary America's Cup quarter-final match between Argentina and Venezuela started with the opening whistle of referee Garcia. ,Officially begin.
The Lion beat the Rabbit with all their strength. At the beginning of the game, Argentina took advantage of the kick-off opportunity to launch a fierce attack on Venezuela's defense.
Unfortunately, there was a mistake in the first attack. Di Maria's attempt to pass the ball back to Velarde from the wing was deflected and was intercepted halfway by the opponent's defender.
But it didn't matter. Venezuela failed to counterattack and soon lost the ball in the midfield. Argentina got the ball again and started attacking.
Only 4 minutes into the game, Messi dribbled the ball from the right, causing wingback Cejas to foul and received a yellow card.
Receiving a yellow card so early will definitely affect Cejas's subsequent defensive actions, so Velarde and Messi began to take turns attacking Cejas' defense zone, dribbling the ball against him.
Even with teammates assisting in defense to share the pressure, the wing where Cejas was located was quickly broken through by Argentina. Mainly due to the two breakthrough experts, Velarde and Messi, attacking this wing together. Not to mention that Cejas has already received a yellow card. Even if he did not receive a yellow card, he would not be able to withstand it.
In the 13th minute, Velarde passed the interception of midfielder Figueira from the center and moved the ball to the wing. Then wingback Sejas had to block Velarde's way.
But Messi had already ran past him. Before Cejas could hesitate whether to stop Velarde or chase Messi, Velarde had already made the choice for him.
After a direct feint, Willard passed the ball from the side to Cejas' feet.
The ball kept rolling forward along the sideline, causing fans and commentators to exclaim:
"Wow, Velarde made a good pass, rolled forward along the sideline, and just avoided Cejas' interception."
"The ball rolled past Cejas' feet and was caught by Messi behind him."
"Messi took the ball and faced the interception of full-back Filcher and the return defense of Cejas, but the successor of the ball king was too flexible with his feet and firmly controlled the ball. Filcher had no chance to make a move. Chance."
"Sejas is already catching up with Messi."
At this moment, Messi did not wait for Cejas to return to defense and surround him. After a feint shot, he passed the ball diagonally at a 45-degree angle and lobbed the ball into the penalty area.
At this time, Messi was still twenty or thirty meters away from the baseline. No one expected that he would suddenly cross the ball. Neither full-back Philcher nor Cejas, who turned back to defend, could destroy the ball in time. They watched helplessly. Watching the ball soar into the air and fly toward the goal.
And Aguero, who rushed into the penalty area from the middle, first judged the landing point, occupied the position, stuck the Venezuelan center back Vizca Rondo behind him, then jumped up and shook his head to attack the goal, passing Messi over. The ball headed towards the upper right corner of the goal.
Aguero's header was a little far away from the goal. The ball was headed smoothly and the rebound was not strong. So although the angle was a bit tricky, goalkeeper Daniel Hernandez still tried his best to fly it. Pounced and successfully touched the ball.
However, he failed to completely save the ball from the bottom line, but only slightly changed the line and hit the post, and then bounced back into the penalty area.
Di Maria rushed into the small penalty area, saw the ball bounce back and made a flying tackle excitedly. He successfully kicked the ball into the goal before the goalkeeper made a second save.
Although Di Maria hit the goalkeeper after completing the supplementary shot, the ball had already been scored. Both the Argentine players on the field and the fans in the stands celebrated excitedly.
"Aguero, header!!!"
"Ah, the ball was saved by the goalkeeper."
"besides……"
"Di Maria!"
"Goooooooooooooooooooooooal..."
"The ball is in!"
"Di Maria's flying tackle successfully kicked the ball into the goal!"
"Argentina opened the scoring and led 1-0."
"The game is basically stable."
However, while the commentators, fans, and players were celebrating excitedly, Di Maria, who collided with the goalkeeper, did not get up to celebrate the goal. Instead, he held his thigh and rolled in the penalty area in pain.
Aguero, Messi, Velarde and others were surprised and rushed to ask about the situation. The referee also blew the whistle to confirm that the goal was valid, then paused the game and stepped forward to ask.
It turned out that Di Maria moved too much during this flying tackle and shot, and actually strained his thigh muscle.
This is too bad luck.
According to the preliminary examination by the team doctor, Di Maria, who has a weak ability to resist injuries, is not optimistic and may miss all the remaining games of Argentina in this Copa America.
Everyone's heart suddenly cast a shadow.
When Di Maria was helped off the field by the team doctor, he had tears in his eyes and felt quite depressed. Originally, scoring the first goal for the team in the knockout round should be something worth celebrating, but I didn't expect that I was injured because of this shot.
Fortunately, there are still Messi, Velarde, Aguero and others on the court. Especially Velarde, who can be called an iron man, has first-class injury resistance, and is in excellent condition. Together with Messi, there should be no problem in leading the team to the finals and eventually winning the championship.
When Di Maria left, Velarde, Messi and others also hugged him one after another, asking him to rest peacefully off the court and just watch them score and win.
After Di Maria came off the field, Gerardo Martino replaced No. 9 center Higuain and asked him to play center. Aguero moved to the left to play left winger. Of course, his ability to break through and pass is far behind Di Maria. His more task is to cut inside into the penalty area and score goals.
Anyway, Argentina is already leading 1-0 and has the upper hand. If Venezuela wants to reverse the comeback, it must attack.
Argentina has Velarde's counterattack speed, so it will be no problem to beat Venezuela's counterattack. This game is basically stable.
