After 28 years Argentina has finally won the Copa America and has been crowned the champions of South America for the 15th time.
As the fireworks burst above the Maracana, a jubilant Lionel Messi held the Copa America trophy, jumping and chanting with his fellow teammates.
Messi, the team captain, was awarded with a trophy for being the best player of the tournament and for being the top goal scorer.
Emilio Martinez was crowned best goalkeeper.
Argentina won the match 1-0 against Brazil.
How did it go down?
The match started with a yellow card being issued to Fred Rodrigues in the 3rd minute of play.
Soon after, Neymar appeared in the 13’ with a square torn out of his shorts. It seems like Neymar is almost always finding himself in a position where he is getting hurt or damaged.
It was in the 21stminute that team Brazil started to see the Copa America trophy slip away from them.
De Paul delivered to Di Maria a beautifully placed ball far clear of the Brazilian defence, which Di Maria then chipped over the goalkeeper’s head straight into the back of net.
Di Maria after scoring then gave his fans a scare in the 36th minute where it appeared that he had twisted his ankle. This incident left the Argentinian team playing with 10 men for about 2 minutes. Not long after Di Maria resumed playing after receiving stellar medical treatment.
It was now half time and the score remained 1-0.
The 2nd half
In the 1st half Brazil was disorganised, but as soon as Roberto Firmino was substituted onto the field in the 46’, they started to play much better.
Brazil started to attack.
Offering a glimmer of hope for Brazil, Richarlison scored a goal, but the cheers quickly went silent when it was announced that it was off-side. The score remained at 1-0.
In the 54’ Richarlison got another opportunity from a ball passed by Neymar, but the Argentinian goalkeeper saved it.
In the last couple minutes of the match Neymar tried to set up some goals, but with no luck the pendulum continued to swing in favour of Argentina.
In the 86’ Neymar was given a free kick, but it was saved by the Argentinian goalkeeper.
The referee gave 5 minutes of stoppage time, but nothing materialised for Brazil.
The match had a total of 41 fouls and 9 yellow cards were issued.
Brazil played well, but it wasn’t enough to equalise the score to gain access to extra time.
Lionel Messi waited his entire life for this moment. pic.twitter.com/T0vnMsI75H
— Goal (@goal) July 11, 2021