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What's the story?
Argentina and Juventus forward Paulo Dybala has revealed that national teammate Lionel Messi had given him his 'lucky' red ribbon before their heated play-off against Chile in the Copa America on Saturday.
In case you didn't know
Argentina finished in third place at the Copa America after establishing a 2-1 win over Chile courtesy of goals from Sergio Aguero and Dybala.
The game was marred by controversy following Messi's accusations of corruption against the South American Football Conferderation (CONMEBOL), following his sending off in the second half.
The Barcelona skipper was seen engaged in an altercation with Chilean counterpart Gary Medel after the two players were challenging for the ball. The defender aggressively pushed Messi multiple times before a match official intervened and gave both players the marching orders.
After the game, Messi refused to accept his bronze medal at the podium and instead slammed the organisers for conducting a biased tournament that was set up for Brazil to win. The 32-year-old said,
"The group showed a lot of personality. It's not easy to start with a defeat [against Colombia] and then drawing [against Paraguay] – that made us stronger and we finished in a very positive way."
"They could have reviewed the sending off, but VAR was not used. Hopefully, the referees and VAR won't influence it and they'll let Peru compete, but that looks difficult to me."
The heart of the matter
Dybala, who scored the first competitive goal for his country during the clash, has revealed that Messi had given him his lucky red ribbon before the game.
The ribbon was given to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner by a reporter last year, who passed on the lucky charm from his mother.
Dybala revealed after the game:
"Messi gave me the red ribbon before the game to give me luck and I ended up scoring my first competitive goal for Argentina, so it worked."
What's next?
Argentina are next scheduled to face Peru in the Pan American Games on July 28.
