Football
Tom Marshall, Mexico correspondent 8y

Pizzi hopes Chile can stop Leo Messi, 'the most important player in history'

EAST RUTHFORD, N.J. -- Chile coach Juan Pablo Pizzi believes Argentina star Lionel Messi is the "most important" player of all time, but is hopeful La Roja can stop him in Sunday's Copa America Centenario final in MetLife Stadium.

"I believe we're going up against the most important player in history," said Pizzi in Saturday's pregame news conference. "It is unlikely that we will see someone break his records, but even so, we believe we can beat [Argentina]."

Pizzi admitted that this is the biggest game of his coaching career to date and didn't discount making changes in the formation to deal with the threat of Messi, but Chile's full-throttle playing style is unlikely to change.

"Our style is based on the aggressiveness and intensity that we want to give the team," said Pizzi. We will keep insisting on it because that is how we feel most comfortable and it gives us the best results."

The two teams met in last year's Copa America in Chile, with La Roja winning on penalties, but Chile has never defeated Argentina inside 90 minutes in the tournament's 100-year history.

A boost for Chile came with the news that midfielder Marcelo Diaz is available after the injury that ruled him out of the 2-0 semifinal victory over Colombia.

Celta Vigo's Diaz is confident Chile will overcome the challenge of an Argentina side looking for its first major trophy since 1993.

"We can defeat Argentina because we are a team that trusts a lot in our individual and collective abilities, where we are really strong," said Diaz, who was alongside Pizzi.

The 29-year-old also let out a statement of intent for Chilean football, indicating that two consecutive finals means La Roja can mix it with the elite at international level and want to carry on achieving.

"Throughout our footballing history, this is the first [Chile] team that has been able to get up to the level of Argentina, Germany and Spain," stated Diaz. "We are enjoying the fruits of all that work. ... This didn't used to be normal for Chile."

He added: "We will continue working harder every day to keep the name of Chile up high with the same ideology so that one day we can achieve the maximum, which is to become world champions."

The two teams met in the group stage of the tournament, with Argentina winning 2-1. Diaz believes it will be a similar game, even though Chile didn't seem to be in form and the Albiceleste was missing Messi.

"Argentina got chances from our errors in the circulation (of the ball)," summed up Diaz.

Chile's probable line-up, according to the Chilean press, will be Claudio Bravo, Mauricio Isla, Gary Medel Franco Jara, Jean Beausejour, Diaz, Charles Aranguiz, Arturo Vidal, Jose Pedro Fuenzalida, Alexis Sanchez and Eduardo Vargas.

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