Argentina ARG
Lautaro Martínez 9', Giovani Lo Celso 73'

Argentina into semi-finals after scrappy win over Venezuela

Robbie Dunne

Argentina into semi-finals after scrappy win over Venezuela

Venezuela 0-2 Argentina: as it happened!


GAME OVER! Venezuela going home and Argentina going through.


Soltedo with a nice move and he crosses. Blocked and cleared.


Corner sent in at the back post. Cleared by Argentina.


Caught De Paul's hand but that would be really harsh.


Soltedo wins a corner and they want a penalty.


Di Maria down holding his face now after Rincon catches him with an arm to the face.


Aguero off for Dybala.


Seijas on for Rosales.


Another good save for Armani as he punches away.


Took a deflection though.


Free for Venezeual but Rondon sends it wide. 


Corner by Soteldo and it's straight into Armani's hands.


Corner for Venezuela. 


Rosales down now with a head injury. He needs attention after clattering into Otamendi.


2-0. Argentina on their way now to the semi-final, it seems. Goalkeeper made a mess of it as Aguero shot and the keeper spilled it. Lo Celso pounces.


Ball played through to Aguero but he can't reach it as Farinez gets to it. 


Chance for Venezuela. Armani with the save. Much better now from them as the ball is sent into the back post and Hernandez forces a good save from the keeper.


Soteldo with a nice run into the box and he sends it across the area. Blocked and cleared.


Lo Celso on for Acuña.


Cruncher on Messi. He wins a free.


Di Maria on for Lautaro.


Machis with a cross and it's cleared for a corner.


Machis down injured after laying the ball off out on the wing. Getting some magic spray on his elbow. Strange one as it didn't look like much. 


Another cross. Another Armani catch. 


Soteldo comes on for Del Pino. Venezuela having a go.


More force than anything else that created that chance for Aguero. He runs it out over the endline in the end. Keeper saves it for some reason. And it might be a corner.


Del Pino obstructs Messi as he runs forward. Didn't connect properly but he did get in his way. A talking to from the referee.


Swung in and Armani grabs it.


Ball crossed into the box and Del Pino clears. Venezuela's turn to attack. Darwin with the cross and Foyth foils him again.


Argentina on the ball now as this second half is almost a carbon copy of the first. Can Argentina get that goal?


Argentina have started this second half much better. Martinez drives just wide as he looks for his second.


Free in for Argentina and the keeper gets rattled after punching it away.


We are back underway! Argentina lead. The onus is on Venezuela to make something happen.

Argentina in the tunnel now as Messi addresses his teammates.

Venezuela in the tunnel and ready for action again. They'll need to figure something out in attack or they'll go out with a whimper.


HALF-TIME at the Maracana.


Rosales with a throw for Argentina now. Acuña headers away.


Throw for Argentina. 


Nice corner but Lautaro Martinez' header glances out to the right and nowhere near goals. 


Messi with a lovely little ball into Tagliafico's path. He drives a cross into the box, low and hard. Acuña can't get to it as they win a corner for their troubles.


We will have four minutes of added time.


Free caught by Fariñez.


Messi to take the free.


Rondon booked now for a foul on Paredes. He just kicked out his leg after losing out to the Argentine. Five yellow so far in what has been a thoroughly scrappy 45 minutes.


Free taken and it's down to Aguero. Chancellor cuts it out and Venequela survive.


Lautaro down injured as Chancellor catches him on the head as they battle for the ball.


Acuña takes Murillo out of it as he gets to the ball first. He gets himself a yellow card for it too.


Cross into the box and Herrera gets it away. One of Argentina's better chances. 


But it's actually Chancellor at the front post who heads wide. Nice chance.


Another corner now for Venezuela. They have a massive height advantage but haven't been able to use it from set-pieces yet. Rondon the main man I'm talking about.


Messi with a free. Lofted nicely into the box and Pezzella meets it. He can't get under it though and he sends it over the bar.


Lautaro fouled now as Messi takes. The little Argentine is playing deep in an effort to get involved. He hasn't had too much to do so far. Venezuela have been the better side since the goal but that's not really saying much.


Another cross after Rondon wins the ball with his back to goal. Otamendi heads away again.


Long ball down to Rondon again and it's grabbed by Armani.


Rondon cushions a header down into the path of Murillo and he has a chance to shoot but doesn't. Chance goes to waste.


Argentina trying to take back control here. Venezuela don't have control either. It's all been very vanilla so far. 


Darwin again as Foyth holds him off. Foyth clips him, maybe, possibly. The referee looks at VAR and says it was nothing play continues. The VAR lads getting plenty of work in early on.


Ball down to Armani and some nice, handy catching practice for the keeper.


Foyth slides in on Darwin as he races down the left. Corner in the end. Great tackle but a really risky one. Looked like he came in from behind the attacker but he got the ball.


Argentina gone off the boil a little bit but Venezuela not really taking advantage yet. If it continues like this, they'll likely grow in confidence though.


And now Rondon clatters into Pezzella. He threw his elbow into the defender's chest as he looked to shield the ball. Another break in play.


Hand ball as Messi tries to skip past Hernandez. Referee checks VAR and says it wasn't a handball.


They keep the ball though and try to attack again. Better from them after a fairly horrible start.


Rondon with a foul on Tagliafico. Venezuela spell comes to an end. 


Venezeual with the ball and they attack. They win their first corner too as Herrera cause some problems. 


Lautaro Martinez booked now for a foul. Really scrappy game.


Another yellow. Herrera is booked now for a foul on De Paul.


Paredes turned upside down as he falls on the ball. Another free for Argentina.


Unclear as to what VAR is checking.


Seems the referee is checking something now? Not reallt sure what it is. 


Rincon with a foul and he gets booked as De Paul gets his legs taken from under him.


Another Argentina attack. Shot comes in as Messi is on the ground holding his knee.


Lautaro Martinez with the goal. Ball falls to him at the back post and he shoots. It took a slight deflection and dribbles by Farinez. It's only 12 minutes in but that goal was coming.


Messi with a corner now.


Another corner! They need to find an out ball because Argentina are just going to keep battering down the door.


Aguero with a cross. A couple of Argentina players in the vicinity but Venezuela get it away. Their backs are really to the wall now.


Headed down and into the path of Pezzella. He nearly turns it home but he didn't know a whole lot about it. Farinez with the save.


Lovely cross in. Met by Otamendi but the Venezuelan defender gets his head to it first. Another corner.


Corner for Argentina as Paredes gets set to take.


Long ball down to Rondon and it looks like he is clipped but the referee tells him to get up. 


Very much what was expected with Venezuela sitting deep. It's up to Argentina to break them down.


Argentina dominating possession so far.


Corner sent in by Messi and it's cleared but Messi wins it back and shoots. His shot is blocked.


De Paul fouled now as Argentina win a free. Fairly scrappy start to this. First chance falls to Aguero. Lautaro plays him through and he drives it towards goal. Keeper, Farinez saves with his foot. Corner Argentina.


Tagliafico with the ball on the left as Argentina bring it into Venezuela's half for the first time. They win a throw.


We are underway!

The scrutiny over that one man! It's incredible.

Teams out on the field and ready for action!

Scaloni continues to tinker. 

Rafael Dudamel, Venezuela's manager, has played Argentina four times during his stint as boss of the national team. They have won two, drawn one and lost one of those games.

Lionel Scaloni has been the manager of Argentina for six games now. Three wins, two losses and one draw. Those two draws came most recently against Colombia and in the friendly earlier this year against Venezuela.

Argentina haven't won the Copa América since 1993. Venezuela have never even gotten to a final.

Venezuela also beat Argentina in a friendly in March. They won 3-1 and all two of the three scorers are starting tonight. Murillo and Rondón. Josef Martínez misses out.

Venezuela with just one win in the Copa so far. It came in their last game against Bolivia. They drew with Peru and Brazil in their first two games.

Argentina XI: Armani, Foyth, Pezzella, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Acuña, Paredes, De Paul, Messi, Martínez, Aguero.

Venezuela XI: Fariñez, Chancellor, Moreno, Herrera, Machís, Rincón, Mago, Murillo, Rosales, Hernández, Rondón.

Argentina beat Qatar to make it into the quarter-finals. It has not been convincing though and Scaloni, the manager, has played a variety of different line-ups. Lautaro was very good against Qatar and got a goal early to settle nerves but aside from Messi being the focal point, there remains no true system at play.

Hello and welcome to live online coverage of Venezuela vs Argentina in the Copa América. Kick-off coming at 21:00 CEST and we will have team news, stats and build-up of the game!