![Argentina Copa America Title Winners](https://img-cdn.thepublive.com/fit-in/1280x960/filters:format(webp)/popdiaries/media/media_files/HNK77j8hvNTHXpHlw7MC.jpg)
Argentina and Messi fans are having the best monday of the year as they sucessfully defended their Copa America title by beating Colombia 1-0, with Lautaro Martinez scoring a late winner in extra time making Argentina secure their 16th Copa America title, the most by any team.
Argentina stepped in the final by easily beating Canada 2-0 where Messi scored his first and the only goal of the tournament while Colombia had a tough match but stood strong and won 1-0 to Uruguay. Both the team entered the finals with no losses and won every match with complete teamwork but the finals was not gonna be easy.
In the final stint, Argentina started off with a high note and were pushing for the opener but Colombia made a comeback and showed their defensive abilties. Both the teams were pushing hard for the first goal but the whole match was completely neck to neck. the match went to extra time as the ball couldn't get into any of the team's net untill 'The Bull', Lautaro Martinez arrived and scored a banger in the 112th minute which secured the win for the Argentines. This is not the first time that Lautaro has came off the bench and made Argentina Win, he did the same vs Chile where he scored in the 88th minute to make Argentina win. This performance of his made him win the top scorer of the Copa America 2024 where he scored a total of 5 Goals which had 0 penalty goals.
Emiliano Martinez on the other side received the best Goal-Keeper award. His performance consisted of maintaining 5 clean sheets in 6 games and also saving 2 penalties in the Quarter-Finals vs Ecuador.
This match also marked the Final match of Angel Di Maria in the Argentine colours. He has played the most Finals Along side Messi and scored in almost all the finals including the World Cup Finals. His goals for Argentina are going to go down in history and will be remembered for sure. Farewell, Legend. Although, Messi didn't have the game of his life today as we saw him leaving the pitch crying after getting injured in the 66th minute. He was literally sobbing and wanted to contribute more for the team and for Di Maria's last game but couldn't. Though is G/A this season wasn't inpressive but his playmaking made him win 2 player of the match award. Hoping to see him play more in the blue and white.
This match also broke a record as Argentina became the first team to win 16 Copa America titles, surpassing Uruguay with 15 titles. Surely the celebrations of fans and players must have not stopped as the Argentine boys backed their 4th international trophy in spam of just 3 years.
Fun Fact : Argentina has won more titles in the last 3 years (4) them matches lost (2).