Lionel Messi’s reaction when Nicolas Otamendi tried to give him Argentina captain’s armband | OneFootball

Lionel Messi and Argentina compatriot Nicolas Otamendi had a friendly on-pitch argument as the diminutive magician replaced forward Julian Alvarez against Paraguay in Buenos Aires. The reigning world champions continued their flawless start to their World Cup qualification campaign, one in which they have failed to concede in after three meetings.

Otamendi, who currently plies his trade for Benfica, opened and closed the scoring just three minutes in with a superbly-executed volley following Rodrigo De Paul’s corner kick, but his name is in the headlines this morning for a different, more humorous reason. The former Manchester City defender was blessed with the armband as resident skipper Messi found himself on the bench from the off.

Upon his introduction in the 53rd minute, the interaction between the Argentinian duo has warmed the hearts of those in attendance and at home thanks to Messi’s heartfelt gesture.

Lionel Messi earns admiration for gesture

Messi did not feature from the start of the contest seeing as the 36-year-old talisman had recently suffered a host of muscular injuries in his right leg – and given his lacklustre performance when he was substituted on, Lionel Scaloni probably made the right decision.

As Scaloni looked to put the tie to bed by extending their lead, on came the Inter Miami icon. As he was waiting for the referee’s command on the touchline, he spotted Otamendi making a beeline towards him to give him the armband in order for him to resume his usual duties as captain of La Albiceleste.

Instead of accepting it, Messi can be seen wagging his finger in the direction of Otamendi as if to say that he should enjoy the moment of captaining his nation. Otamendi, who has two tattoos of Messi inked on his skin, however, refused to hold on to the band and insisted on handing it to the nation’s saviour.

Social media has been ablaze with admiration for the forward’s simple – but heart-warming – gesture towards the affair’s solitary goalscorer and rightfully so, what a man!

How did Messi fare on his return to action for Argentina?

A flurry of injury concerns kept Messi away from international duties for their previous fixture against Bolivia, in which turned out to be a routine 3-0 victory for Scaloni’s men.

Striking the bar twice was on the agenda for the returnee, though he has found himself under some scrutiny for his individual performance. Within 10 minutes of his introduction, Messi rattled the post from a corner kick and was denied by the upright again late on in the game. His efforts to unlock the stubborn Paraguayan defence were also relatively unsuccessful.

Missing two marquee chances is atypical for someone of Messi’s standards and can just be attributed to a lack of match fitness given he has missed five of the last six domestic games for his club, Inter Miami. He managed to chalk up 35 minutes of action in a 1-0 loss to Cincinnati most recently, but it’ll take the 36-year-old a tad longer to get up to his usual exploits.