The teams of Argentina and Colombia start this Saturday their challenge of winning the CONMEBOL America of Brazil-2019, by the Group C of the competition.
The expected debut will take place at 19:00 local in the Arena Fonte Nova Stadium in Salvador (northeast), in a match that will be directed by the Chilean referee Roberto Tobar and is part of Group B also integrated by Paraguay and Qatar.
For Lionel Scaloni's Albiceleste, the "Copa America Mission" is double: to win a trophy that has been avoided to since Ecuador-1993, and to give Messi a title that is being denied to him with the senior national team.
"For us, the Copa America is a World Cup", said captain Lionel Messi, the leader of a team in which other historic players such as Sergio Aguero, Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Otamendi still survive.
The TD Lionel Scaloni, guides the Albiceleste with the responsibility of recovering the status of a group where talent is unlimited
"The goal is for this group to make a great Copa America. I'm not talking about the final result, but about everyone's feeling that we're making progress, that we're working on something important", said the 41-year-old TD
The Colombia of Queiroz
Historically, Argentina has been for Colombia an uncomfortable opponent in the CONMEBOL Copa America. In 13 matches, the Cafetero team has only been able to achieve victory in two games (Argentina-1987 and Paraguay-1999), while they drew in four games, although two of these were resolved by penalties with an Albiceleste victory.
The challenge is a difficult one for the Portuguese Carlos Queiroz's new Colombian team, also in the reconstruction phase after six years and eight months of the José Pekerman time, in which the Cafeteros disputed the World Cups in Brazil-2014 and Russia-2018.
"We're going to face an Argentinian National Team that is replacing players but will always be a potential candidate with Brazil," said Radamel Falcao Garcia, captain and goalscorer of the Colombian team.
Colombia arrived in Brazil with a 3-0 victory over Peru in Lima last Sunday in the final preparation game for both teams, a result that put Argentina on alert.
Possible line-ups
Argentina: Franco Armani; Renzo Saravia, Germán Pezzella, Nicolás Otamendi, Nicolás Tagliafico; Giovani Lo Celso, Guido RodrÃguez, Leandro Paredes, Ángel Di María; Lionel Messi and Sergio Agüero.
DT: Lionel Scaloni.
Colombia: David Ospina; Santiago Arias, Yerry Mina, Dávinson Sánchez, William Tesillo; Juan Guillermo Cuadrado, Wilmar Barrios, Edwin Cardona/Mateus Uribe; James RodrÃguez, Radamel Falcao Garcí and Luis Muriel.
DT: Carlos Queiroz.
*AFP
