Lionel Messi has revealed it will ‘take a while’ for him and his Argentina team-mates to ‘accept’ the 2-0 defeat by Colombia in their opening Copa America match.
Goals from Roger Martinez and Duvan Zapata saw Colombia take control of Group B and leave one of the tournament favourites battling to avoid an embarrassing early exit.
Messi, the talisman for the side, has urged his team-mates to ‘recover quickly’ as they face a must-win game against Paraguay next.
“It will take us a while to accept and process the defeat,” Messi said. “We have to look at the mistakes we made, and find the positives. We have to recover quickly and there is still a chance to qualify.”
Lionel Scaloni’s side will still be expected to progress, with games against Paraguay and Qatar to come. But their tournament started in the worst possible fashion.
Argentina have finished runners-up in the last two Copa America tournaments and Messi will be keen to end his wait for a major international honour having seen rival Cristiano Ronaldo lift the Uefa Nations League earlier this month. The Argentina national team have won the tournament 14 times but have not lifted it since 1993.
They take on Paraguay tomorrow in Belo Horizonte before facing 2022 World Cup hosts Qatar in Porto Alegre to conclude the group stage. The top two teams from each group progress to the knockout stages while a further two teams — the best of those who finish in third place — also progress.
