‘Where are his teammates?’ Messi’s Argentina woes summed up in one brilliant viral image

A viral image has summed up Lionel Messi’s woes as he battles to save Argentina from the humiliation of a group stage exit at the Copa America.

Messi scored a penalty to help salvage a draw for Argentina against Paraguay on Wednesday night as goalkeeper Franco Armani also saved a spot-kick to keep the scores level at 1-1.

The result followed Argentina’s opening game defeat to Colombia and leaves their chances of qualification hanging by a thread, as they must beat Qatar on Sunday to stand any chance of reaching the knockout stage.

Criticism has been aimed at Albiceleste boss Lionel Scaloni for some of his selection choices – most notably a failure to use Juventus star Paulo Dybala in either game so far – while Messi’s teammates have been slammed for failing to help out their star man.

In the aftermath of the draw against Paraguay, there was one image circulating online which appeared to sum up Argentina’s approach to simply sit back and pray that Messi would do it all.

The picture, shared in various forms across social media, shows the game in Belo Horizonte deep into injury time, with Messi on the ball just inside his own half.

He faces six Paraguay players in front of him and two immediately behind, while there are just two teammates in the shot, one of whom is not even looking at the ball.

“I’ve reached a point where Argentina’s situation has become funny to me,” wrote one Twitter user sharing the image.  

“94th minute, they need a goal, Messi has it 60m away from goal, in front of him 6 or 7 opposition players. Teammates? He has one guy vomiting, the other guy is 50m away hugging the touchline with 0 remorse.”

Others on social media have picked up on the image, sharing it with similar captions and replies which essentially convey the message that, at least in an Argentina shirt, Messi is very much going to have to do it all on his own.

Argentina face Qatar on Sunday as they bid to keep their hopes alive of remaining in a tournament they haven’t won since 1993 – having lost in the past two finals.

If they do manage to dig themselves out of a hole, it’s likely that Lionel Messi will have a lot to do with it.