Argentina made it three wins out of three in World Cup qualifying by beating Paraguay 1-0 in Buenos Aires on Thursday night.
Nicolas Otamendi scored the only goal of the game in the third minute when he executed a stunning volley following a corner kick from Rodrigo De Paul.
Otamendi started the match wearing the captain’s armband as regular skipper Lionel Messi was on the bench.
But Messi then came on as a substitute in the 53rd minute when he replaced Julian Alvarez.
As he was waiting to come on, Messi spotted Otamendi running towards him to give him the armband.
Messi responded by waving his finger at the former Manchester City defender to tell him to keep it.
However, the friendly disagreement ended with a smiling Messi reluctantly accepting the armband from Otamendi, who did the honors of attaching it around his captain’s arm.
Otamendi’s respect for Messi is well documented. In fact, Otamendi has two tattoos of Messi inked on his body.
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