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Football London
Football London
Sport
Tashan Deniran-Alleyne

What Arsenal's Emiliano Martinez did to Lionel Messi in Argentina training session

Emiliano Martinez has the privilege to train alongside some of the best players in the world at club as well as international level.

With Arsenal he comes up against the likes of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette on a weekly basis.

But for Argentina he is tasked with facing arguably the very best - Lionel Messi.

Called into the La Albiceleste's squad for upcoming friendlies against Brazil and Uruguay, Martinez will be hoping to make his first appearance for the national team.

He does face competition from Agustin Marchesin, Juan Musso and Esteban Adrada in order to do so.

Although the Gunners ace might have improved his chances of making his Argentina debut following an incident in training on Tuesday afternoon.

He managed to stop Messi from scoring which is no easy feat given the 32-year-old in six of his seven appearances across all competitions for Barcelona.

Martinez took to social media and uploaded an image of him smothering the ball at the feet of Messi.

And judging by the reaction of the Barcelona superstar, he couldn't believe the Gunners no.2 got to the ball before him.

Last month, Martinez spoke about being back in the Argentina set-up.

"It's a dream come true," Martinez told football.london "As a young kid I wanted to play for the national team.

"We've got two good games to play now preparing for the Copa America.

"I'm more than ready to play for the national team now, I'm getting more minutes so the confidence is really high for me now.

"I'm delighted for the call-up but I always want more."

Unai Emery believes he can recover from criticism

For Martinez to become Argentina no.1 he will need to be playing regularly for Arsenal, something which seems unlikely for now given the impressive form of Bernd Leno.

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