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What's the story?
Argentina captain and talisman Lionel Messi has slammed the state of the pitches at the ongoing Copa America, saying that it was very hard to play on the uneven surfaces.
Multiple grounds in the host country Brazil have come under heavy criticism from multiple players and coaches, including Rio de Janeiro's Maracana, Belo Horizonte's Mineirao, Porto Alegre's Arena do Gremio and Salvador's Fonte Nova stadiums.
In case you didn't know...
Argentina struggled to qualify for the Copa America quarter-finals after losing their opening game 2-0 to Colombia and drawing their second game against Paraguay 1-1. Despite an underwhelming performance against Qatar in the final group game, goals from Lautaro Martinez and Sergio Aguero ensured the Albiceleste's progression into the knockout rounds with a 2-0 win.
The sorry state of the pitch was made evident with the ball bobbling up on several occasions, most noticeable in the 73rd minute with Messi skying a shot on the goal due to the uneven bounce (Video below)
The heart of the matter
As reported by Marca, both Lionel Messi and Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni criticized the poor state of the Copa America pitches.
""All of the pitches where we've played have been bad," Messi said after the 2-0 win over Qatar."The ball bounces a lot and you need extra control to stop it. It's hard to play like this."
"People moaned at me for mentioning the pitches as if I was trying to make an excuse, but you can't play on a pitch like this," manager Scaloni told the press.
What's next?
Argentina qualified for the knockout stages of the Copa America as the second placed team behind Colombia in Group B. They are set to face Venezuela on 28th June in the second quarter-final and are likely to come up against Brazil in a mouth-watering semi-final on 2nd July.
