Lionel Messi admits the Copa America has suffered for the loss of Neymar following confirmation of his Barcelona teammate’s four-match ban.
The forward was shown a second yellow card and subsequently received a retrospective punishment for kicking the ball at Pablo Armero after Brazil’s 1-0 defeat to Colombia on Thursday, before appearing to head-butt Jeison Murillo.
“It would’ve been great if the Copa wasn’t deprived of a player of his class, but I don’t want to get into whether the punishment was right or wrong,” the Argentina international, who earned his 100th cap on Saturday against Jamaica, told reporters.
“[On the 1-0 victory over the Reggae Boyz], our pace dropped in the second half, that’s the reality. I don’t know what happened, but we struggled to find space.
“We had a great first half, in which we created many scoring chances.”
