10/07 the date when both Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi won their first international trophy

One of the biggest concerns of world football has finally been resolved. The question over when Lionel Messi would eventually be winning an international trophy with Argentina has been answered. The Argentine national team defeated Brazil 1-0 in the final of the Copa America 2021 yesterday (July 10, 2021). This resulted in Messi winning his first international trophy. While the footballer’s fans rushed to gloat about the same to supporters of rival footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, the same resulted in a very interesting observation. Ronaldo had similarly enjoyed international success on the same day (July 10), back in the year 2016 following Portugal’s triumph in Euro 2016.

Portugal defeated France by the same margin as witnessed in the case of the encounter between Argentina and Brazil (1-0). Such similarities are certainly a startling indication of some salient features which link the two top footballers. However, their fans refuse to accept the same.

“If you knew the way Messi played in the Copa America you’d love him even more”

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni interestingly revealed that Messi had played the Copa America final as well as the semi-final, despite an injury.

“If you knew the way that he played in the Copa America you’d love him even more. You can never do without a player like him, even when he is not fully fit like in this game and the previous one. In the end he did not throw in the towel and he succeeded. We are talking about the best footballer of all time and everyone knew how important it was for him to win a title with the national team. I have a relationship that is different than the (usual) coach-player relationship. It’s closer. We greet each other, we hug each other, and I am eternally grateful to him and his teammates,” he said following the win at the Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro.

“The pitches were poor”

Brazil coach Tite was furious about the poor quality of pitches on offer during the tournament. He further had some tough words in store for Argentina for slowing the game down.

“The organisation left a lot to be desired. The pitches were poor. The players were put at an excessive risk. This shouldn’t happen in a big tournament such as this one. I am talking specifically about the man responsible, Alejandro (Dominguez), who is the president of Conmebol. I am talking about him, for organising the tournament in such a short space of time,” he stated.

“The game was so stop-start. We wanted to play but there was anti-football. The whole time there was diving for fouls and then they took forever to take them, the referee didn’t keep the game going. The strategy was to break up the play,” concluded Tite.