Lionel Messi scored the first goal in the Copa America 2024 as Argentina defeated Canada 2-0 to reach the final. Messi and Julian Alvarez scored for Argentina in the match that took place on Wednesday morning at the MetLife Stadium.
Argentina will now play for the title against the winner of the match between Colombia and Uruguay. Former champions Argentina are aiming to win three major tournaments in a row. Argentina won the Copa in 2021 and won the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
In the 21st minute of the game, Alvarez gave Argentina the lead by scoring a pass from Rodrigo de Paul. Messi added a goal in the second half. He scored the first goal in the ongoing cup in the 51st minute with a pass from Enzo Fernandez. Messi, who is playing the seventh cup of his career, has scored in 6 editions except 2011. He scored two goals in his first Copa appearance in 2007.
Similarly, he scored 1 goal in 2015, 5 goals in 2016, 1 goal in 2019 and 4 goals in 2021. Messi has scored 13 goals in the cup so far. He is joint seventh in scoring the most goals. Argentina’s Norberto Mendez and Brazil’s Zizinho scored the most goals, 17 each. Teodoro Fernandez of Peru and Severino Varela of Uruguay scored 15 goals, while Paolo Guerrero of Peru and Eduardo Vargas of Chile scored 14 goals.