Lionel Messi was on the end of a horrific tackle during Argentina duty on Thursday night.
PSG chiefs will have had their fingernails firmly placed between their teeth just 32 minutes into Messi’s return to action for Argentina following the summer’s Copa América exploits.
That’s because Venezuela star Luis Adrian Martinez decided to plant his foot midway up the leg of Messi’s.
The Challenge, unsurprisingly yielded a red card for Martinez, but it was surprising to see Messi get up and continue to play the rest of the 90 minutes.
The now PSG star did spend some time recovering on the ground, leading to concerns, but he got up and hobbled on soon after before making a full recovery.
Adrian Martínez with a horror tackle on Lionel Messi, who is thankfully fit to continue 😬
It’s a straight red card for the Venezuelan after a VAR review 🟥 pic.twitter.com/LMOB0rbvZM
— Premier Sports (@PremierSportsTV) September 3, 2021
As you can see above, it truly was a horrific challenge from Martinez, and it did cost his team dearly.
Lautaro Martinez opened the scoring for Argentina before Joaquin Corra and Atletico Madrid’s Angel Correa made it two and three.
Yeferson Soteldo did pull one back for Venezuela but it was too little, too late.
