Argentina beat Venezuela 2 – 0 to make it to the semis of the Copa America.So their dignity,shredded a bit by lacklustre performances so far,remains intact for now.
They now face the formidable task of taking on Brazil in their own backyard.
Messi’s mettle is yet to be proven.The magic continues to elude him.
Maybe this will be the day that he will be able to break the jinx and play so well that old Maradona will sit up take notice.
The far bigger crisis however is the fact that the exodus of the Venezuelan people from their own country may exceed eight million people by the end of next year, which would make it the largest migration crisis in the world.
So win against Argentina would have given the common folk some small thing to cheer about in the midst of much suffering.
But it was not to be.