The eight statistical data of Argentina’s victory against Canada :: Olé

The Argentine National Team beat Canada 2-0 this Thursday night, in the debut of Group A of the Copa América 2024. Premiere with victory for the Albiceleste, which won thanks to the goals of Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez, both 9. Beyond the result, the match, of course, left a lot of fabric to cut, such as records achieved and interesting brands to highlight…

Among the records, of course, the two of Lionel Messi stand out mainly, who became the player with the most appearances in the Copa América (35) after surpassing the Chilean Sergio Roberto Livingstone, who had held the mark since 1953, and the Argentine with the most participations (seven: Peru 2004, Venezuela 2007, Argentina 2011, Chile 2015, United States 2016, Brazil 2021 and United States 2024) in this competition.

Off the records, Another of the marks that received much of the attention was that Argentina won its first debut match in an official tournament with Lionel Scaloni as coach. after failing to achieve it in the 2019 Copa América (0-2 vs. Colombia), 2021 Copa América (1-1 vs. Chile) and the 2022 World Cup (1-2 vs. Saudi Arabia).

But there is even more data (the vast majority, with Messi as the protagonist). Therefore, review below other moments highlights of Argentina’s victory against Canada according to statistics recorded by Opta.

-Messi was the player with the most prominence in the attack of the Argentine National Team after having had nine interventions in the rival area, having achieved six shots and having distributed five finishing assists.

-Messi reached 17 assists for the Copa América. The first was in the 2011 edition, since then, he has more than triple the number of assists in the competition than any other player (Ángel Di María and Alexis Sánchez, with five).

-With the assist against Canada, Messi reached 50 direct participation in goals in official competitions on US territory (30 goals + 20 assists).

-Messi made seven passes that broke the last defensive line against Canada, more than twice as many as any other player in a Copa América opening match.

-Argentina had nine great scoring chances (according to the Opta definition) against Canada, the most for the Albiceleste since at least 2013, along with two friendly matches against Guatemala (3-0 in 2018) and Curacao (7-0 in 2023) .

-Canada shot seven times in the first half, the most for an Argentine opponent before halftime since November 2021, when Uruguay took eight shots against the Albiceleste in the South American Qualifiers.

-Lautaro Martínez scored in four of the last five games he played in the Copa América (against Canada this Thursday; against Bolivia, Ecuador and Colombia in 2021). The only exception was the final against Brazil.

-Cristian Romero was the player who had the most interventions in the game (108 in 90 minutes) and who made the most successful passes (91).