Perspiration minus inspiration = frustration for Messi

"It's amazing how difficult I'm finding it to score goals for the national team", the Argentina skipper admitted after the Colombia game.

Lionel Messi's joy at his country reaching the Copa America semi-finals was tempered by him drawing yet another blank in the blue and white stripes.

Messi was Argentina's most influential player, looking to grab the match by the scruff of the neck and putting his foot in when needed, even dropping back into his own half to do so.

Nevertheless, the Barca star only had one clear-cut chance in front of goal, being denied in spectacular fashion by David Ospina. The forward looked for all the world like he was going to put Argentina ahead when the goalkeeper's save from Sergio Agüero's strike looped up into the air right to Messi, but Ospina sprang to his feet and kept out the captain's headed rebound.

"I didn't even see him [Ospina] get up. I thought he was still on the ground and said to myself, 'I'm going to make sure by placing it'. Then, when I saw him, I wanted to kill myself", Messi acknowledged, a distressed expression on his face.

Messi hasn't scored in an international knockout game for eight years, since the 2007 Copa America semi-final against Mexico. He failed to find the net at all in the 2010 World Cup or the 2011 Copa América, the latter on home soil, and only registered at the group stage in last year's showpiece in Brazil.

The 28-year-old has only notched once in normal time so far in Chile, dispatching a penalty in Argentina's opener against Paraguay. He also converted his country's first spot-kick in the shootout against Colombia.