The two South American powers meet in the Copa América group stage on Friday, June 18th.
Uruguay becomes the last team to open play at the 2021 Copa América, when it faces Lionel Messi's Argentina in Brasilia.
With a pair of five-team groups, the fixture list is slightly imbalanced, with three teams already having played two patches before Uruguay plays its first. La Celeste will be hoping to break out of its recent attacking slump, with Luis Suárez & Co. coming off a pair of 0-0 draws in World Cup qualifiers that preceded this tournament.
The two nations are the most successful in Copa América history, with Argentina's 14 titles only bettered by Uruguay's total of 15.
How to Watch:
Time: 8 p.m. ET
TV Channel: FS2, Univision, TUDN
Live Stream: You can stream the match on fuboTV. Sign up now for a free seven-day trial.
Lineups:
Argentina XI: E. Martínez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuña; De Paul, Guido, Lo Celso; Messi, L. Martinez, González
Uruguay XI: Muslera; González, Giménez, Godín, Viña; Torreira, Valverde, Bentancur, De la Cruz; Suárez, Cavani
While Uruguay has struggled recently on the attacking end, Argentina has struggled to protect the leads that it has built. In three straight matches across World Cup qualifying and Copa América, Argentina has gotten out to leads only to blow them and settle for draws. Two came against Chile—once in each competition—while in between that was a 2-0 lead that turned into a 2-2 draw against Colombia in a road qualifier.
Messi, who will line up against his good friend, Suárez, scored goals in both matches against Chile to extend his national record to 73 goals, and he's within four of Pelé's career total on the international stage. He still trails Cristiano Ronaldo by 33 on the all-time list, with the Portugal star on the cusp of setting the men's international scoring record currently held by Iranian great Ali Daei (109).
With four teams from each group advancing to the knockout stage, there is not a ton of pressure on either side at this juncture in the competition, but they'll both want to fix what's been ailing them recently before the more intense matches on the horizon.
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