Lionel Messi Furious At Referee Over VAR

CHARLIE MALAM

Lionel Messi was furious at Ecuadorian referee, Roddy Zambrano, and his match officials after Argentina were eliminated at the Copa America semi-final stage by arch rivals Brazil.

The Barcelona star was hoping to finally end his long wait for a first international trophy but Argentina lost 2-0 in Belo Horizonte despite an improved performance.

Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus tapped in from Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino’s set-up in the first half before the pair switched roles in the 71st minute to put themselves in final, where they will face either Chile or Peru at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro. Yet Lionel Messi was outraged at the failure to award a penalty to Argentina shortly before Firmino made it 2-0.

Sergio Aguero was felled off the ball by Dani Alves while Nicolas Otamendi was also impeded at a corner by Arthur in another off-the-ball incident.

And a fuming Messi slammed the “bulls**t” decision-making as he once again suffered heartache in the competition, having lost in both of the last two finals to Chile on penalties.

Messi declared to reporters: ”They were not better than us. They found the net early and the second goal came from a penalty [to Aguero] they didn’t award.

“They [the officials] had booked a lot of bullsh*t, but they didn’t even check the VAR, that’s incredible.

“That happened all over the game. At the first glance of contact, they ruled in their [Brazil’s] favour and this kind of bullsh*t distracted us from the game.

“There are no excuses for us, but we need to review this, analyse it and let’s hope CONMEBOL does something about it.

“I think we played a great game. We made a great effort and they were not superior to us.”

Argentina struck the woodwork twice, with Aguero heading onto the crossbar in the first 45 before Messi hit the post himself at 1-0.

Hosts Brazil are looking to win the tournament for the first time since 2007 when they beat Argentina in Venezuela.

Jesus scored his first goal from open play for the eight-time champions and the City front-man declared post-match that he was always confident he would find the back of the net.

“I felt I would score. I’m not saying that because I scored. Other times I didn’t say this,” said the 22-year-old claimed.

“I was very confident and I managed to score in a great team performance. Firmino set me up really well.

“I’m delighted, not for the goal but for the team… We scored the goals, we’re all delighted about the match, about the commitment, about the performance.

“We have to play every match with this spirit.”

The other semi-final between Peru and Chile takes place tonight (1.30am UK time) with Alexis Sanchez and co. eyeing a third straight success.

Only once has another country won the Copa America three times in a row when Argentina did so between 1945 and 1947.

Messi’s next hope at ending his silverware drought with Argentina will come at the 2020 Copa America, which they will joint host with Colombia.