Uruguay, defended deep, too deep and bet all their chips to a counter attack to exploit Argentina’s defensive holes, but in the process made the big mistake of leaving Messi with too much space.
It looked as if it was going to be enough, as, although Lio, played at a very high level, the posts, and Muslera were always there to deny him during the first half.
Zabaleta and Rojo were held back by the tactics of Sabella and were not a threat from the wider areas.
Mascherano was, together with Messi, the main man, but on this occasion his partnership with Gago did not work so well, as the Valencia man did not have one of his better games.
But the second half changed a lot. Di Maria started to get more involved, Higuain (very below par) and Aguero started to rotate and move more, giving Messi more options, and making Uruguay come out and defend a little bit further from their own box.
As a consequence, Messi opened the scoreline and only six minutes later Aguero double it.
The visitors were showing that they have lost that self confidence that made them so strong during the WC2010 and the Copa America 2011, and had very little to show for all their potential power.
With the 2 goals cushion, Sabella’s team started to pass the ball well, keep position and they looked far superior to their neighbours.
But it was still time for Messi to score one more, with a cleverly executed free kick.
He ran to the ball, and when the wall jumped, he hit it hard and under them, leaving the keeper with no chance.
In the end it was 3-0. It was fair, it was a true reflection between the 2 sides, but more importantly showed that even when not all the important players are firing in all cylinders, Argentina are still capable of winning games.