- Emi Martínez played the full 90 minutes for Argentina on Wednesday morning
- Lionel Messi scored a hat-trick to beat Algeria 3-0
- Martínez didn’t have to make a single save
Emi Martínez’s fantastic clean sheet record for Argentina continued on Wednesday morning, as the reigning world champions kicked off their title defence with 3-0 hammering against Algeria.
For those at Villa Park, Martínez’s presence in the starting lineup was a massive victory in itself. The 33-year-old goalkeeper had suffered a fracture to his finger on his right hand during the warm-up for May’s Europa League final.
Having missed Argentina’s pre-tournament friendlies, there were lingering fears over whether he would be fit for the group opener. However, Martínez brushed off any injury concerns to start for Lionel Scaloni’s side in their Group J clash against Algeria.
Dominant opening display
Playing in front of a packed Kansas City Stadium for their opening match of the World Cup, Argentina laid down a marker for their title defence.
The headline story belonged to Lionel Messi, who ignited the tournament with a spectacular hat-trick, scoring a first-half opener before sealing the three points with two clinical goals in the latter stages of the match.
With another clean sheet added to his tally, Martínez now has 42 in 60 caps for Argentina, just five away from Sergio Romero’s record of 47. At his current astronomical rate, the Villa icon looks destined to become the most statistically successful goalkeeper in his country’s history during the tournament.
Martínez’s performance
Martínez operated in his usual sweeper-keeper role, neutralising Algeria’s counter-attacking threat. Overall, it was a rather quiet night for him, as a disciplined defensive unit and a rather lack of quality in attack ensured Algeria failed to register a single shot on target.
His passing distribution wasn’t at his best with a 66% accuracy. He made 31/41 passes and 8/18 long balls, occasionally misplacing direct line-breaking balls under intense pressing.
Despite that, he looked entirely unbothered by his previous hand injury and was perfectly comfortable in his claiming of both low and high crosses to completely command his penalty area.
With maximum points secured, Argentina sits comfortably at the summit of Group J. They next play on Monday 22nd June at the Dallas Stadium, Texas, against Austria at 18:00 UK time on the BBC.
