Argentina beat Canada 2-0 in the semifinals of the 2024 Copa America at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on Tuesday, reaching their second consecutive final.
The defending champions were buoyed by goals from Julian Alvarez and captain Lionel Messi, who scored his first goal of this edition.
Argentina repelled the early pressure as Alvarez got past two defenders to open the scoring with a perfect finish in the 22nd minute.
Messi doubled the lead in the 51st minute when he stuck out his boot to deflect Enzo Fernandez’s shot from the edge of the area past Canadian goalkeeper Maxime Crépeau.
Argentina will face either Uruguay or Colombia, who meet on Wednesday, in the final in Miami Gardens, Florida, on Sunday.
Messi follows Ronaldo
Messi’s goal took his international goals tally past Ali Daei’s record of 108 goals for Iran, making him the second-highest scorer of all time after Cristiano Ronaldo (130). It was also Messi’s 14th goal in Copa America history.
The best international goalscorer in history
1. Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal): 130 goals
2. Lionel Messi (Argentina): 109 goals
3. Ali Daei (Iran): 108 goals
4. Sunil Chhetri (India): 94 goals
5. Mokhtar Dahari (Malaysia): 89 goals
6. Ali Mabkhout (UAE); Romelu Lukaku (Belgium): 85 goals
7. Ferenc Puskas (Hungary): 84 goals
8. Robert Lewandowski (Poland): 83 goals
9. Godfrey Chitalu (Zambia); Neymar (Brazil): 79 goals
10. Hussein Saeed (Iraq): 78 goals
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