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Lionel Messi came off the bench early in the second half of Argentina's 1-0 win over Paraguay in World Cup qualifying in Buenos Aires on Thursday night.
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni left Messi, who is recovering from a leg injury, out of his starting XI for its third CONMEBOL qualifier thus far, staring Porto winger Nico Gonzalez, Man City's Julián Álvarez and Lautaro Martínez of Inter Milan at the top of his formation.
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Nicolas Otamendi opened the scoring early in the game with a nice volley to give a dominant Argentina the lead at half-time and Messi began to warm up shortly after the break to the delight of the home crowd at Monumental.