Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Argentina will have the opportunity to revenge their Copa America final failures to Chile in 2015 and 2016, after being drawn alongside their old rivals in the draw for next year’s tournament on Thursday (Friday, Manila time).

Argentina, the reigning Copa America champion, will defend their title in the United States next summer in an expanded 16-team competition featuring 10 South American countries and six CONCACAF qualifiers.

Argentina, World Cup champions last year, will open the tournament on June 20 in Atlanta against either Canada or Trinidad and Tobago, who will meet in a playoff next year for one of the two remaining CONCACAF slots.

The Argentines will then meet Chile in a rematch of the Copa America Centenario final, which was staged at the same location in 2016.

Argentina, which had been beaten on penalties by Chile in Santiago a year earlier, again lost the 2016 final on penalties, with Messi scorching his penalty over the bar.

Following the defeat, the Argentine captain announced a brief retirement from international football, only to reverse his decision and resume his career.

The world champions will finish their Group A campaign in familiar surroundings for Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi, when they face Peru in Miami on June 29 in their last first-round game.

Mexico is in Group B with Ecuador, Venezuela, and Jamaica, while the United States is in Group C with Uruguay, Panama, and Bolivia.

Brazil, who were defeated by Argentina in the 2021 final at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, is in a potentially difficult group with Colombia, Paraguay, and possibly Costa Rica or Honduras.

The Copa America next year is being viewed as an efficient warm-up for the 2026 World Cup, which will be held in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

At Thursday’s draw, CONMEBOL president Alejandro Dominguez declared that the competition would be a “Copa America of the World.”

“The world champion team (Argentina), the only five-time world champion team (Brazil), the first world champion team (Uruguay) will take part, along with the best players in the world, who are Latin Americans,” Dominguez said in a statement.

On June 24, Brazil will face either Costa Rica or Honduras at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, the futuristic home of the Los Angeles Rams NFL team.

On June 28, they will face Paraguay in Las Vegas before closing their group stage against Colombia at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, home of the San Francisco 49ers.

The tournament will be held at 14 stadiums, the majority of which are huge capacity venues owned by NFL teams.

If Argentina wins Group A, they will face the Group B runner-up in the quarter-finals on July 4 at Houston’s NRG Stadium, where they defeated the US in the semi-finals in 2016.

The Dallas Cowboys’ Arlington, Texas, stadium will host another quarter-final on July 5, with Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium and Glendale, Arizona’s State Farm Stadium rounding out the final eight locations.

The semi-finals will be held on July 9 in East Rutherford and on July 10 in Charlotte, with the final in Miami on July 14.