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Argentina has finally gone through to the next round of the Copa America 2019 after a 2-0 victory over Asian Champions, Qatar.
The 14-time Copa America winners made sure that they continued their run of qualifying to the second round of the competition since 1983.
The Argentine display though was far from convincing. The defence, yet again, looked shaky but somehow managed to keep a clean sheet. The attacking front though seems to have finally found the exact combination with Messi, Martinez and Aguero.
The match started with Argentina in the lead within five minutes after Lautaro Martinez intercepted a poor ball from Al Rawi to give the Albicelste the lead.
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The two-time World Cup winners dominated for the most part of the match. The Asian champions gave a scare or two on rare chances, but poor finishing made sure that the scoreline wasn't affected.
Sergio Aguero then scored in the 82nd minute of the match to secure Argentina's path into the next round of the 2019 Copa America.
The 14-time winners will now face Venezuela at the Maracana on Friday.
#3 Early strike sets the tone
With nothing short of a win required, Argentina needed a quick start to the match to relieve the immense pressure they were under.
And that is what they got as Lautaro Martinez scored in the fourth minute to give the Albiceleste the lead.
The goal by the Inter Milan forward gave Argentina the lead in a match for the first time in this competition, after failing to score against Colombia in their first match and coming from behind to secure the draw against Paraguay.
Argentina started the match brighter of the two teams, but it was the alertness of Martinez and the error by Bassam Al Rawi that produced the first goal.
Restarting the match from a goal kick after Lionel Messi poor shot sailed over, Bassam Al Rawi's poor cross-field pass was easily intercepted by the Inter Milan forward before he side-footed the ball into the bottom corner to put his side into the lead.
The first goal set to tone for Argentina as it relieved some pressure off the Albicelste.
#2 Argentina dominates for large spells
For the first time in the current capaign, Argentina was the better of the two sides as they produced their best football so far in the Copa America 2019.
Far from being convincing, the Albiceleste enjoyed dominant displays for large spells for the first time in this tournament as an early goal from Lautaro Martinez and brilliant solo from Sergio Aguero gave a 2-0 victory for the 14-time Copa America winners.
It was Argentina who started the match brightly as the opening five minutes produce three shots and a goal for the Albiceleste. The two-time World Cup winners enjoyed lengthy spells on the ball as they were the better of the two sides in the first half.
The inexperienced Qatar side could not cope with the Argentine attack as they struggled to keep the ball out of their half.
The second half saw Argentina making quite a few numbers of chances but apart from the brilliant solo effort by Sergio Aguero that led to the second goal, the Albiceleste was quite wasteful up front.
Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero missed glorious chances in the match to keep the score down to just two on the day.
The 14-time Copa America winners had 19 shots in the match and 8 shots on target with 2 of them going in compared 4 shots and 1 shot on target for the Asian champions.
The Albiceleste also had better ball possession with Lionel Messi and co enjoying 56% of the ball possession.
Luca Scaloni and his men will need to improve drastically if they are to win their next match against a Venezuela side, who successfully kept out Brazil from scoring in their group match.
#1 Argentina changes formation; Attacking trio delivers
The major talking point for Argentina coming into the tournament was the apparent inclusion of 21-year old Lautaro Martinez in place of his club companion, Mauro Icardi.
The 25-year-old Icardi's snubbing at the 2018 FIFA World Cup was one of the talking points of the tournament as Argentina displayed one of there worst ever performances during last year's tournament.
The Argentine attack was once at the forefront of the problems. Coming into this match, Albiceleste had one of the most feared attackers in the tournament with Sergio Aguero, Paulo Dybala and Lionel Messi alongside Martinez in their attack.
Despite the big names, the 14-Copa America winners found it tough to break the deadlock against a stern Colombian defence. This was once again the major concern against Paraguay as a Lionel Messi penalty helped Argentina salvage a draw in their second match.
Both the matches saw Luca Scaloni using two strikers in his formation in a classic 4-4-2. The first match saw Lautaro Martinez benched while Aguero being given the start, while the second one saw the Manchester City striker coming on in place of the Nerazzurri man.
With nothing short of a victory needed, Luca Scaloni today decide to put faith and name three forwards in the starting lineup for the first time in the tournament.
This subtle change saw Lautaro Martinez, Sergio Aguero and Lionel Messi starting for the same time.
The change proved to be a masterstroke as Argentina broke the deadlock in the fourth minute through Lautaro Martinez. The attacking side of the Albicelste produced their best ever performance of the tournament today as Qatar failed to cope with the fearsome attack.
The trio looked dangerous every moment they were on the attack as Argentina dominated for a large section of the match. Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero found acres of space inside the Qatar defence but failed to score.
It was, in fact, some brilliant individual display by the Manchester City forward Sergio Aguero that led to Argentina doubling their lead.
Luca Scaloni seems to have found out his best-attacking option up front, but will now have to decide on the players he will be looking to field in the starting line-up.
