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Argentina captain Lionel Messi received only the second red card of his career as his side established a 2-1 win over Chile in the Copa America play-off for third place on Saturday.
Both Sergio Aguero and Paulo Dybala found the net to help the Albiceleste to a third-place finish in yet another disappointing international campaign.
Messi provided the assist for the first goal before being sent off after a heated altercation with Chile captain Gary Medel. The Barcelona forward was seen lightly prodding Medel in an attempt to win the ball, prompting the defender to react by aggressively pushing him a number of times.
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Match referee, Mauro Diaz de Vivar, intervened and immediately gave both players the marching orders. The red card proved to be particularly shocking for Messi, who has not been shown one since his debut for Argentina against Hungary in 2005.
After the final whistle, the five-time Ballon d'or winner refused to collect his bronze medal from the podium and instead spoke to reporters in an angry fashion, slamming the corruption within the CONMEBOL and the refereeing decisions made throughout the tournament.
The 32-year-old said, "The Copa is set up for Brazil, hopefully the referees and the VAR won't influence things and they let Peru compete, but I think that's unlikely."
"We don't need to be part of the corruption that we've suffered at this tournament. We don't need to be part of the lack of respect we've suffered during this Copa América. We could have gone further, but they didn't let us be in the final."
"Medel is always right at the limit. With a yellow that would have been the end of it for both of us, but well, maybe what I said recently had an impact. What's important is that the team finished well in the tournament. Maybe this was ordered [from above] and I ended up suffering because of what I said."
Twitter has since exploded with reactions to the sending off:
