Lionel Messi endured the wrath of the nation for failing to lead Argentina in the 2015 Copa America finals against Chile. The Barcelona player failed to perform at his usual best once again in the national shirt, leading Argentine legend Diego Maradona to criticize the player for his dismal performances with the national team.
Though Diego Maradona dismissed extremist reactions to Argentinaa s failure in the Copa America finals, the World Cup winner insisted that Lionel Messi should be treated a like any other playera while suggesting that Argentina should not get used to always a finishing seconda .
a Are you Argentinian or Swedish?a
Talking about Lionel Messia s performance for Argentina, Diego Maradona highlighted the gap between his outings with the club and national team.
“It’s logical that he’s come in for flak, it’s easy to explain. We’ve got the best player in the world, who goes and scores four goals against Real Sociedad, and then he comes here and doesn’t touch the ball. You’re left saying to yourself, ‘Dammit, are you Argentinian or Swedish?'”
However the Argentine legend insisted that the media should not make a a dramaa out of it, while suggesting that Lionel Messi should be treated like the rest of the national team members.
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“There’s nothing more painful in football than losing a final”
Featuring in his second finals in a single year with his national side, Lionel Messi failed to grab the opportunity to win a trophy as Argentina succumbed to a motivated Chilean side. His performance at the Copa America stands in stark contrast to the fact that Lionel Messi played an intrinsic role in Barcelonaa s treble winning campaign. Single handedly demolishing Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals, Messi also scored a memorable individual goal in the Copa del Rey finals to cap off a brilliant year with the Catalan side. . Speaking before the finals against Chile, Messi hoped that he was saving his goals in the national shirt for the 2015 Copa America finals.
a Hopefully I’ve saved my goals for the final, but it doesn’t matter who scores. We’ve got to another final after doing so at the World Cup and we want to win this one.”
For Lionel Messi, the wait is still on. As he mentioned after losing the match against Chile, “there’s nothing more painful in football than losing a final”.