Argentine superstar Lionel Messi found himself laying on the pitch after a defender contested him one minute into Argentina’s World Cup qualifying match against Uruguay.
About 20 minutes later, Messi came to the defense of a teammate by pushing and putting his left hand around the neck of Uruguay’s Mathias Olivera in a scuffle that dissolved with no discipline from referees.
It set the tone for a feisty match between South American rivals, leaving Argentina on the losing end for the first time since winning the World Cup last December, falling to Uruguay 2-0 at Estadio La Bombonera in Buenos Aires on Wednesday night.
Ronald Araújo in the 41st minute and Darwin Núñez scored in the 86th minute to lead Uruguay, and break Argentine goalie Emiliano Martínez’s impressive shutout streak of 751 minutes.
“We had to lose someday, this happens,” Messi said in an interview after the match.
It was Argentina’s first loss in nearly a year, since falling 2-1 to Saudi Arabia in their World Cup opener on Nov. 22, 2022 – a result that did not impact Messi’s career defining moment in the World Cup final in Qatar last December.
Argentina had not relinquished a goal to their opponents in eight matches – four friendlies and four qualifying matches – since their thrilling victory over France in the World Cup final.
Martínez won the Golden Glove at the World Cup, and the Yashin Trophy last month at the Ballon d’Or awards ceremony as the best goalie in the game. But his streak, the longest in Argentina history, came to an end.
Messi — who made a much-ballyhooed summertime move to Major League Soccer’s Inter Miami — has not scored in a match since scoring in the 32nd and 42nd minutes in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Peru on Oct. 17.
Messi’s best chance in the match was a free kick outside the box in the 57th minute that just had too much behind it, hitting the top of the net, leaving him upset at the missed opportunity to tie the match at 1.
Messi had another free kick in the 23rd minute deflected by a header from a Uruguayan player, and at least two other shots that were deflected by defenders during the game.
Messi was in the thick of the match from the start, after being taken down by Nunez in the first minute. Messi also jumped in to defend his teammate Rodrigo De Paul when he and Olivera got into a heated scuffle. No players were given yellow or red cards, and play resumed.
Argentina suffered its first loss in World Cup qualifying, but retained the lead in the CONMEBOL standings with 12 points. Uruguay’s win improved them to 10 points, and solely in second place in the standings after entering the match tied with Brazil and Venezuela.
Argentina’s next match is against Brazil on Tuesday.
“Brazil’s matches are classic matches and separate matches that are not related to anything previous and carry a lot of history, so we must recover and get up,” Messi said.
