Spotlight: Messi dazzles, Aguero involved in Argentina’s thrashing of Bolivia

Argentina’s attacking talent shone brightly on Monday night, as La Albiceleste sealed top spot in their Copa America Zona Sur group, dismantling Bolivia 4-1 to do so. A thoroughly impressive performance from the 14-time champions of this tournament meant they sealed progression to the quarterfinals.

Barcelona duo Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero were among the headliners in the convincing victory, as the former stole the show with two goals and a wonderful assist. The second of those goals came thanks to a delightful lobbed assist from Aguero.

It was a historic night for Leo Messi, as he officially overtook former Barcelona teammate Javier Mascherano to become the all-time highest appearance maker for Argentina, as he took the field donning the sky blue and white for the 148th time.

With his two goals, he extended his tally to 75 goals for the national side. His assist to Alejandro Gomez for the opening goal of the game was also impeccable, which he then followed up by converting a penalty and before latching on to Aguero’s pass and lobbing the keeper for his secondd.

His new Barcelona counterpart Aguero played only 63 minutes before being subbed off for Lautaro Martinez. Still, he was constantly a menace, taking three shots, misplacing just six of his 30 passes and, of course, providing that superb assist.

Messi played the full 90 minutes however, and during his masterclass, he had 93 touches, and aside from his three direct goal contributions, he completed three out of his four attempted dribbles, won seven duels out of 11, had four shots on target and provided nine accurate long balls out of 10.

A phenomenal outing for both players as they can now head into the quarters against Ecuador brimming with confidence in the pursuit of that all-elusive international glory.