Leo Messi: "Uruguay didn't want to play football against Argentina"

Leo Messi accused Uruguay of doing little else other than trying to bully Argentina in Tuesday's Copa America clash. Sergio Aguero scored the only goal of a bruising encounter in La Serena that featured six yellow cards and Argentina coach Gerardo Martino being sent to the stands in his side's 1-0 win.

Messi felt Oscar Tabarez's men were to blame for the ugly nature of the game, claiming his team-mates had been left with no choice but to fight fire with fire. 

"Uruguay wanted to play hard with a lot of contact," the Barcelona superstar told reporters. "We demonstrated that we know how to play this way too, even if it is not the thing we want most.

"However, we tried to play at the same level during the whole game but Uruguay set out a very tight match. They did not want to play a lot.

"We tried to attack them from both flanks. They were expecting to recover the ball in order to play long.

"Luckily, we got Aguero's goal and then we fought, as that was what the game was asking for."

It was a crucial victory for Argentina, who had blown a two-goal lead in drawing with Paraguay in their tournament-opener. 

However, the 2014 World Cup runners-up are now top of Group B going into their final game, against winless Jamaica. "Our goal is the same now as when we arrived," Messi added. "It was a pity the draw against Paraguay. We were leading 2-0 and we couldn't win. "However, now we're where we wanted. We are on top and we get to rely on ourselves to qualify in the first position."