Emiliano Martinez shines for Argentina in familiar display for...

Aston Villa goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez kept a clean sheet as Argentina continued their winning start to the 2024 Copa America with a 1-0 victory over Chile.

Lautaro Martinez’s late winner gave the Albiceleste a two-game lead in their Copa America championship defence, but Martinez also had a hand in the goal for Lionel Scaloni’s team.

Martinez, who had the Premier League’s Lisandro Martinez and Cristian Romero in front of him, only allowed three shots from the pitiful Chilean team, yet he still managed to play flawlessly.

Martinez developed into a Copa and World Cup-winning custodian during his tenure at Villa, and the captain of Argentina significantly contributed to Unai Emery’s team’s Champions League qualification.

Emiliano Martinez carries Aston Villa form to Copa America

Argentina has always struggled against its neighbours, despite their recent successes on the continent and internationally. Notably, they lost the Copa America finals back-to-back to Chile in 2015 and 2016.

This time, the stakes in their group stage match weren’t quite as high, but Martinez’s stalwart defence set the stage for his namesake Lautaro to score the game-winning goal in the 88th minute.

Villa’s goalkeeper had an extremely high SofaScore rating of 7.4, better than any other Chilean player except for Claudio Bravo, who had to make an astounding eight saves during the game.

Martinez, on the other hand, scored three goals of his own while stopping 0.13 goals. Rodrigo Echeverria drove into him near his home, allowing him to score one of these goals.

With a pass accuracy of 90%, his 7.4 SofaScore rating is higher than Martinez’s average of 7.1 for Villa, indicating that the 31-year-old might be improving even further.

With the diminutive Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez up front, it’s not surprising that only one of Martinez’s three long balls found a man. However, Martinez’s two misplaced passes throughout the evening demonstrated his importance to Argentina, nearly matching that of their captain.

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