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Barcelona star Lionel Messi's return to his national team did not go down well as Argentina succumbed to an embarrassing 3-1 defeat to Venezuela at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid on Friday.
The game marked Messi's first international game after nine months, following Argentina's early exit from the FIFA World Cup last summer.
Lionel Scaloni's side was stunned by an early deficit as Newcastle striker Salomon Rondon scored a sixth minute goal for his side. Two more goals from Jhon Murillo and Josef Martinez all but secured the win for Venezuela.
Messi, who has been in phenomenal form for Barcelona this season, failed to find the back of the net and only registered one shot on target during the game.
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The 31-year-old has netted 39 goals in 36 games in all competitions for the Catalan giants, who are at the top of the Spanish league table and are qualifiers for the Champions League quarter-finals. The Blaugrana even have a Copa del Rey final against Valencia to play on May 25.
Messi is often criticized for failing to replicate his Barcelona form when playing for Argentina. He even returned from international retirement only to be knocked out at the World Cup last year. Since then, the Argentine has taken a break from international duty but made his return in the blue-and-white jersey yesterday.
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To add to the disappointing result, the Barcelona captain suffered a groin injury during the game and will miss Argentina's friendly against Morocco on Tuesday.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner is all too familiar with the injury as he has suffered the same in 2016 and 2017.
Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo also drew a blank on his return to the Portugal national team, who were held to a draw against Ukraine in their first Euro 2020 qualifier.
Twitter has since exploded with reactions to the disappointing result.
