Destinolove

Juan Antonio Pizzi is confident his Chile side can beat  Argentina and the "most important player in history" Lionel Messi in the Copa America Centenario final.

The 48-year-old took over as coach of the reigning South American champions in January and has inspired an impressive defence of their title in the United States.

However, Chile must now defeat Messi's Argentina at the MetLife Stadium on Sunday night to retain their crown.

The Barcelona star broke Gabriel Batistuta's all-time goalscoring record for Argentina in the semi-final defeat of USA with his 55th international strike, but Pizzi is optimistic despite the scale of the task ahead of his men.

"I believe we're going up against the most important player in history," said the Argentine-born coach.

"It is unlikely that we will see someone break his records, but even so, we believe we can beat [Argentina]."

Juan Antonio Pizzi is confident his Chile side can beat  Argentina and the "most important player in history" Lionel Messi in the Copa America Centenario final.

The 48-year-old took over as coach of the reigning South American champions in January and has inspired an impressive defence of their title in the United States.

However, Chile must now defeat Messi's Argentina at the MetLife Stadium on Sunday night to retain their crown.

The Barcelona star broke Gabriel Batistuta's all-time goalscoring record for Argentina in the semi-final defeat of USA with his 55th international strike, but Pizzi is optimistic despite the scale of the task ahead of his men.

"I believe we're going up against the most important player in history," said the Argentine-born coach.

"It is unlikely that we will see someone break his records, but even so, we believe we can beat [Argentina]."

"Throughout our history, this is the only team that could be compared to teams like Argentina, Germany or Spain," he said.