Manchester United defender Lisandro Martinez gave a glowing account of himself even as Argentina slipped to a 2-1 loss at the hands of Colombia on Tuesday night.
Colombia beat Argentina 2-1 at the Roberto Melendez Metropolitan Stadium, courtesy of goals from Yerson Mosquera and James Rodriguez.
The home side took the lead in the 25th minute when Rodriguez floated a cross to the far post, which Mosquera dutifully connected with to send home.
Argentina – who lacked in attack in the absence of their captain Lionel Messi – responded immediately after the break as Nico Gonzalez danced past the Colombia defence to guide the ball into the back of the net, through the goalkeeper’s legs.
At the hour mark, Rodriguez converted from the spot-kick after Colombia were awarded a penalty.
In yet another match, Martinez was deployed in a relatively unfamiliar left-back position by Lionel Scaloni and the United No.6 did not disappoint, despite his side’s loss.
Martinez was on the pitch for 64 minutes before he was taken off and replaced by Marcos Acuna.
During the time he was on the pitch, Martinez made one tackle, which was a last-man challenge that kept Colombia from breaching Emi Martinez’s goal.
The World Cup winner delved into four ground duels, winning three of them. He was required to contest one challenge in the air and he came out on top.
The 26-year-old had 30 touches of the ball to his name and successfully found his teammates with 18 of the 19 passes he attempted, managing an individual pass accuracy of 95%.
He pinged two long balls and connected both times. Martinez also embarked on two dribbles and completed both of them.
(Stats obtained from Sofascore)
The United defender was reliable at left defense, and his side of the field was definitely safer than the other. At the conclusion of the first half-hour, he had a great opportunity to score and could have put his name on the scoresheet, but he wasted it.
Martinez’s focus is now only on United and the team’s impending Premier League encounter with Southampton.