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Argentina managed to avoid an embarrassing defeat at Venezuela thanks to a late goal from Nicolas Otamendi.


This was the first game of new Argentina coach Edgardo Bauza, and he will be relieved that the match ended as a draw.

Argentina started the match poorly and fell behind in the first half by conceding a goal from debutant Juanpi. Indeed Venezuela fielded a young team that showed determination and aggressiveness on the field and Argentina failed to cope with that.

This was the first goal of Juanpi at the senior level, and he will be cherishing the memories for a long time.

Argentina will struggle to come back into the game and with the absence of Lionel Messi in the team will have difficulties in creating chances. The match will reach half-time with a score of 1-0.
After the break, Venezuela will add another goal to make the score 2-0. This time, it will be Josef Martinez who will score an important goal for his team.

The second goal will cause Argentina to come to life and start to create chances. They will be given hope in the game when Lucas Pratto scored his first goal at the international level to make the score 2-1. Argentina will continue to press to get the equalizer, but the goalkeeper will deny them each time.

It is only in the closing stage of the game that Nicolas Otamendi will score an important goal to equalize for Argentina. This will bring relief to the coach who was hoping that he could start his career with Argentina with a win.

Bauza has stated that there is still work to do and that Argentina will have to learn how to play without Messi. He said that he would be working on the training grounds to help the team create more occasions.