Argentina and Manchester City’s Pablo Zabaleta shares his views on the upcoming Copa America with Sport360 ahead of the tournament’s start and how Lionel Messi can inspire his national team to glory.
It’s been a long time since Argentina won the Copa America and, of course, it’s not good enough. So this tournament is another great opportunity for us to achieve something special for our country, we all know that.
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It’s also a great chance after losing the World Cup in the final last year. We came so close and that was disappointing for all of us.
The World Cup is on another level, the biggest tournament, but the Copa America is still a great competition. The standard of South American teams is really high and we will face very tough teams, many of our rivals, so it’s going to be tough to win it. You have Colombia, Uruguay, Brazil and Mexico, really good teams with good players.
Messi: “Argentina are favorites in the Copa América and we know it, for our team and players we have.” #CA2015 pic.twitter.com/QHGpRHU5S4
— Lionel Messi #10 (@WeAreMessi) June 10, 2015
Four years ago, we lost to Uruguay on penalties in the quarter finals when it was played at home, but we are a big team, the expectations are high, and we are an ambitious country.
We all know what we are playing for. We will be trying to reach the final again and will try to win it. It’s also important for us to win it because we want a big title as a national team.
We have had the youth World Cup and the Olympics, but you always want more trophies. It’s been disappointing this season, for me personally, not to win anything with Manchester City and you look at the players we have got in the team and you expect to win something. It’s the same with the national team.
But football is like that sometimes and it happens. Not everything is perfect. Football is about momentum and we have some of the main players, like Lionel Messi and Sergio Aguero, doing really well for their clubs and hope they can do the same with the national team.
What more can you say about Messi? I’m not surprised by how well he has done this season for Barcelona. I’ve known him a long time and he’s a special player. He has got back to his best form, back to the Messi we have seen before.
Last season he struggled with the injuries, muscle problems, but we did not have any doubt about his quality. We know how good Messi is, but you need to be well physically and mentally to compete at the top level and when Messi is good in those areas, he is the best.
Sergio has also finished so well for City and has gone to a really high level this season. The golden boot as the Premier League’s top scorer was well deserved because he has been working hard for that. It was just a shame not to celebrate that with a title.
But he’s one of the top strikers in the world at the moment, confident and in great form and I hope he can continue like that in the Copa America.
