Since the 2022 World Cup, where he scored 7 goals, including 5 goals scored from the 11 meter mark after the penalties the Argentina team received, Messi has no longer taken any more kicks in any of his matches. team. He often leaves it to teammate Di Maria to perform or recently gave the opportunity to striker Lautaro Martinez.
The reason was explained by Messi: “Lautaro Martinez needs to regain the feeling of scoring goals, because every time he returns to the team he always has difficulty. This will help the overall performance of the team”.
With immediate effect, Lautaro Martinez, after being given the 11-meter kick by Messi in Argentina’s 4-1 win over Guatemala, raced for the Copa America. Up to now, along with the past 3 group stage matches, the club’s striker This Inter Milan scored a total of 6 goals in 4 matches. Among them, there are 4 goals in Copa America to lead the top scorer tournament.
After scoring goals at the Copa America, especially the double in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Peru on June 30, Lautaro Martinez ran to the bench to thank Messi for helping him find his way. regain his scoring instinct when playing for the team.
Lautaro Martinez’s continuous firing also helps Messi feel extremely comfortable when he has to sit on the bench due to injury. Above all, when Messi cannot play, the Argentine team is still extremely secure with the extremely good performance of Lautaro Martinez, along with Julian Alvarez and Di Maria to lead the attack.
At the age of 37, Messi is still playing for the Argentina team, but this famous player has gradually reduced his biggest responsibilities to avoid pressure. In particular, Messi confirmed that he no longer cares too much about records, but just wants to keep the feeling of happiness every time he plays for the team in the last Copa America of his career.
Is Ronaldo obsessed with setting records?
Ronaldo, a 39-year-old Portuguese player, also determined that EURO 2024 is the last in his career and also wants to avoid unnecessary pressure. The fact that Ronaldo could score a goal, but assisted Bruno Fernandes to score more easily to set a 3-0 win against the Turkish team on June 23, inspired many viewers.
If he also gave up the 11m kick in the 105th minute of extra time against Slovenia on July 2 for his teammates to take, perhaps it would have been even better.
However, Ronaldo took the shot for many reasons. He is the captain and also aspires to become the oldest player in history to score at EURO, according to Guinness World Records . The penalty is the best opportunity to score (perhaps even better than the assist situation for Bruno Fernandes), so Ronaldo is very confident that he will score, thereby setting a personal record.
However, the shot under pressure to set a record made Ronaldo unsuccessful, goalkeeper Jan Oblak (Slovenia) was too easy to block. Furthermore, during the match against Slovenia, Ronaldo also took every free kick, but none of them were successful.
The fact that this famous player later burst into tears because he was so disappointed in himself almost caused harm to the Portuguese team, because at that time the score was still tied at 0-0 and there was still a second extra period ahead. , losing your spirit makes it easy to admit defeat.
Luckily for Ronaldo, the Portuguese team stood firm and later won the penalty shootout. Ronaldo redeemed himself with the first successful penalty kick. Instead of being like that, why doesn’t Ronaldo choose a better solution for himself and his teammates?
If he still thinks about himself, Ronaldo can completely affect the overall performance of the Portuguese team, when ahead is the quarter-final match with the French team, which is extremely difficult.
