Mauro ZARATE, FAZIO and PALACIO score in Europa League

By
Roy Nemer
-
40
Mauro Zarate Fiorentina
Mauro Zarate Fiorentina

Three different Argentine’s scored in the Europa League on Wednesday.

Three Italian clubs had Argentine’s score in the Europa League as Mauro ZARATE found the back of the net twice, while Federico FAZIO and Rodrigo PALACIO also scored for their clubs.

Mauro ZARATE scored twice for Fiorentina in a 5-1 win against FK Qarabag. Following his first goal, ZARATE dropped to his knees and revealed a t-shirt which wrote “Gracias Dios Nat Te Amo” or “Thank you God, Nat I love you” as he dedicated both goals to his wife who has cancer.

Federico FAZIO scored for Roma in their 4-0 victory against Astra in the Europa League. Fellow Argentine’s Diego PEROTTI and Leandro PAREDES also started the match for the Italian club.

Rodrigo PALACIO scored for Inter in their 3-1 loss to Sparta Praga.

Mauro ZARATE’s goals:

Federico FAZIO’s goal:

Rodrigo Palacio’s goal:

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

40 Comments

  1. That Alexander Szymanowski scored again for Leganes. Another Argentina with polish roots. Dybala, Szymanowski, Conechny.

  3. Bauza accepted to be a puppet, so he gets the criticism.
    Snake culture surrounds our team, people are more concerned about friendships than winning.
    If Messi doesn’t win the cup looking back he will only have himself yo blame, no one else.
    He f cares more about his friends than Argentina.
    He is probably the 2nd best player ever but a great person he is not!
    For all of you who have STOCKHOLM SYNDROME and make excuses for afa/coaches/players I ask you this?
    Do you know what pride is?
    Aren’t you tired of the same shit over and over again?
    It’s a re-run.
    How many times do u need to watch the same episode to realize it’s a re-run?
    F the Afa/coaches/players who put personal things before the good of the team. They will never get support from me.
    If u cant do your job, quit making excuses and step down!

    • That’s why I think Bielsa would be good coach, at least to some degree. He has a balls to ignore AFA. It was long-term vison from him to call up 19 years old Mascherano despite he had not even debut in River A team.

  4. A good quality performance & win in the upcoming qualifier will vanish all criticism on Bauza. …

    Hope for the best for Argentine football
    Vamos

  7. The fact that we look at football differently makes this blog interesting. I think there is a belief here that ;
    1) Argentina has world class players in every position and there is enough players ready step on the scene and light up the stadiums.
    2)if Bauza makes wholesale changes then Argentina will be a super team ready to roll over every team that comes it’s way because we have Messi, Icardi and Dybala.
    Both assumption are false, coz firstly we don’t have world class box to box (Iniesta, Gundogan type) CMs and fullbacks. No team can hit the ground running while in transition. So fans need to realistic with the pace of restructuring before posting wild dream line ups.
    The second point, how many world class players does Chile, Portugal, Wales and Iceland have compared to Argentina? my point is that big name or big club players count for nothing nowadays. Small teams have learned that they can get away with results against big teams if they manage to outwork or exploit a certain weakness and the right moments. In Argentina’s case, I don’t really think it matters which club the player plays for anymore. There are now world class players turning out for so called small teams like Payet (West Ham), Mahrez (Leicester), Calhanoglu (Leverkusen) etc. Titles have been won with mediocre players like Chile, Uruguay, Denmark, Portugal and Greece. It’s all about how the team utilizes the tools at it’s disposal. 86 team had a lot of mediocre players but they adapted to the challenge and played excellent as a team. But many only remember Diego’s heroics but the shifts Burruchaga, Valdano, Batista, Ruggeri, Guisti and Pumpido put in for NT. So we can have a strong team without having world class midfielders. Balance and efficency are not defined by world class players.

    • I agree and disagree here.

      First of all, every should open their eyes is seeing that there is something very very wrong in selecting the squad.

      – Does anybody have doubts that Rulli should at least be in the squad? Isn’t he a better keeper than Guzman? I’m not saying that he should be called in the team and play straight away. But what about calling him in matchday squad to train and integrate with the team? Does it harm the team moral? Or does it upset Romero and friends?

      And I’m not even going to start about Paredes, Lanzini or even Icardi. These players must be called to be integrated with the team. If it is too hard to integrate with the team now, it is going to be impossible in two years time before the world cup.

      Just my opinion here.

    • When it comes to world class players, neither Payet and Mahrez are one. The word ”world class” is use way too loosely by supporters on sport blogs. This doesn’t mean they’re not good enough players, but saying these two are world class is a far stretch. The great Sir Alex Ferguson said is dominant Manchester United team only had like two or three ”world class players.”

      “You hear about people saying English football’s the best football there is around,” Scholes comments. “I think Spain’s by far the best league. Germany has better teams. In Italy probably the strength in depth isn’t great. They talk about Italy being a bad league but I don’t think English people look at it.”

      “The Spanish league’s the best by far if you’re judging on the European competitions. In the quarter-finals of the Champions League and the Europa League in 2015–16, they had six of the 16 teams. Nearly half of them. The Premier League had just two.”

      “There needs to be a real step up in quality in England. Other than Sergio Agüero, Kevin De Bruyne and David Silva, we don’t have the best players. All the best players are in other countries.”

      I know this is only one man’s opinion, an Englishman, a former Man United and England NT player legend, but I would take his opinion on the Premier league over any football supporter.

    • Another thing, Portugal have always been an elite European football nation. For me, in terms of football nation, Portugal deserves the European title, unfortunately, the wrong team won it, the team that had Luis Figo and co should have won it and not this 2016 version. Portugal does not have mediocre players, same for Chile. I don’t think Argentinean players outside of Messi, Aguero, Higuaín, Di Maria, Zabaleta, Mascherano, and Dybala (probably) are better than the Portuguese or the Chilean NT players.

      • Kid
        Portugal elite? Oh now you’re say that the Figo Portugal should have won it. Because they had better team, players or what? This is exactly I’m trying to drill into your heads that titles do not necessarily require world class players. Now name your Chilean or Portuguese defenders that better than current Argentine defenders right now? Those teams just understand and apply teamwork more than Argentine players do collectively. Not because they’re better player individually. And btw they play for smaller teams.
        Mahrez is world class even if you don’t recognize him as such but Barca scouts do. Except Germany and Spain which NT would afford to leave Payet out of their midfield if he was their player right now? Of you can echo what Scholes or alex Fergusson said all day but that is not conclusive. It was also Sir Alex who anointed Moyes to be his replacement.

        • Sabellista

          For you the EPL is ”gold standard” when it comes to soccer. Hyping up guys like Payet and Mahrez does not make them world class players. Barcelona was scouting Funes Mori; does that make him world class? Barcelona wanted Vietto, does that make him world class? Barcelona was scouting Venezuela Rondon, does that make him world class? Barcelona bought Paco Alcacer from Valencia, does that make him world class? The EPL is an average league that is over hype due to the amount of money that has been pouring into the league. Any player from the middle of nowhere can play in the EPL and look like the greatest thing since slice bread. Every single Spanish/La Liga player that switch to England is seen as a top player, when these players were in La Liga they barely made the news. I get that the EPL has a bigger worldwide audience but that doesn’t mean the product is good. Only in the EPL an average team like Leicester City could have won the league.

          • Lol, Kid you don’t know everything. If just sometimes stop being so judging people like you’re god you’d learn more reality. Everyone around me knows that I rate EPL maybe 5th best league to their dismay. I grew up on the 80’s & 90’s Serie A. Til today I only watch a few selected EPL games. I don’t about you but I played football long enough to recognize talent and I know how to distinguish a great player from average when I see one whether he plays in Argentina, Spain or Bangladesh. When I first saw Messi play for Barca reserves against Ajax in the Ronaldinho era. I was just mesmerized by the skills of some unknown youngster who I thought was trying too hard to be Ronaldinho but dribbled more like Diego. When the commentator revealed his nationality I punched the air like celebrating a goal. For I knew that was enough to know Argentina was blessed again with an extra ordinary talent by the football gods. I agree to disagree with your view on players.

    • Sabellista, isn’t that a slightly false dichotomy here? I personally want neither a wholesale change, nor do I want to preserve the status quo. Sure, I’d like to see some changes, not least a more fluid and dynamic midfield and a much better left-back than we currently have. Rulli, at minimum on the bench, would be nice too.

      • EnganChe, Don’t get me wrong. I have said countless time that I want to see first of all competition in the team and secondly, new blood. But given the WCQs situation, I don’t see the need for Bauza to try inexperienced rookies in these important matches. Especially a team that is learning to adapt to the new coach’s ways. We are 10 points away from qualification with difficult matches coming up. That’s all that matters to me right now. Winning ugly or beautiful it doesn’t matter. I just want to see win at all cost or refuse to lose when down attitude. It’s easier to do with battle tested players than with youngster who are excited by the opportunity to be in company with Messi. So when that part is done then I want to see a lot of experiments and risks in friendlies so that we can see who deserves to be in the final 23. And those who come in need to show strong form not necessarily just a youngster coming learn what they should have learned with the U23 level NT or club competition. Fuck the names, objective first.

  8. European coach would be good for Argentina because of one reason and bad because of one reason:

    -the good: he would be independent to AFA and not puppet, and he would have balls to bench most popular players when it’s need
    -the bad: I’m afraid he would not have wide ranging perspective of selections (including knowledge about Argentina or Mexico league players) so calling up only footballers from Europe finally.

  9. I did not elaborate why it is easy for Germany to integrate young players,because it has been discussed before.Germany youngsters are more matured than Argentine ones,because German youngster play in level where football level is high i.e UCL.Even French are ahead of us in that regard.

    Our brightest youngsters never play together in youth teams.Not only that many of them are bench warmer for their respective clubs,even one of the best talents we have like Correa.Our own Mundo members will testify why Simeone is a genius to bench him,how Vietto learned a lot just by training with Atletico,but again will cry when no youngster make into the senior team.

    Compare our current youngsters with young Requelme,Veron,Cambiasso,Mascherano,
    Maxi,Coloccini,Burdisso.You will see there is huge difference in maturity and performance.Requelme was Requelme at the age of 22.Even though none of Burdisso,Coloccini or Saviola,D’allesandro turned into world bests but they were way ahead of their age during their youth team days.

    It is not mistake of one or two people.The whole system is flawed.And we all know that.So we need stop bashing Bauza in every comment.He is in the mud from the beginning,but we all are pretending that he has apples of paradise but refuses to serve us.And I don’t know what guys you expect,it is not like AFA selected Bauza ahead of Guardiola.Our first choice managers turned us down….Simeone,Pochettino,Sampaoli,Berizzo,Bielsa… all of them.Bauza,Diaz,Russo,Pumpido were the 2nd tier list.You can’t expect first class management from 2nd class manager.Accept this,you will land in real life and your role in Mundo community will be a lot more constructive.

    • Disagree that he is 2nd class manager.
      Bauza is better than overrated pochettino and arguably he is better than sampaoli.
      As for simoene bauza is as good as him the only difference is bauza has won finals something simeone failed so far.
      The issue with bauza and all the previous coaches isn’t his ability as coach but outside influence.

  10. And lastly Bauza is not the perfect man to control and manage no.1 fifa team…..

    no new idea ..no new trying tactics. ..
    Lots of criticism here

    but no other options available

    So I am keeping my support with Bauza as he takes the duty when there was chaos.
    Whatever players he choose
    Brazil Colombia will be the Litmus Test

    • Bauza may not called a lot of new players.But he is certainly trying new ideas and tactics.For that watch Uruguay match.I will say what difference I did observed from previous manager:

      1.When defending the Argie players divided the field vertically making an left and right half.All players crowded to the half where opponent has the ball.It made defending zone smaller.Argentina did not pressed hard,but nearby player quickly challenged the ball holder.Argentina was defensively very compact without crowding the D-box.

      2.After a long period of time,there was off ball movement in Argentina’s play.

      3.When Messi was in center,Dybala was in right wing.When Messi was in right,dybala was in center.Something I haven’t seen since Guardiola’s Villa-Messi-Pedro combo where Villa-Pedro would exchange position with Messi with fluidity and efficiency.

  11. Coaches from big team like -Spain. .Germany. .France etc. Never fear of dropping a big name and calling a young hard working talented players. …….

    why not Arg coach? ???????????

  12. Banega Mascherano Biglia Pastore Di maria

    these are the midfield genius
    But
    Now is the time to inject young blood like all National team do
    i am not saying to exclude all but please leave some players out of NT…

    young players of Argentina are still managing greatly in the European midfield but if they are not called in NT how they will manage to climb up . . .
    Pereyra Lanzini type of players are working hard though they are not heavily genius

    but same old genius players are not delivering much glory

    So time to think bcoz nxt WC is coming closer
    and Masche-biglia-banega and living fossil Demichelis will not be younger by days passes.

    Argentina is 1st Ranked team in Fifa
    Not sure but feeling we willbe in final of Russia also

    present defence attack & Midfield should be slowly given in the younger hands of future like Paredes Kranevitter Pereyra Lanzini J.Correa A . Correa Icardi Dybala Rulli Ascacibar Tagliafico

    with the experienced blend of Messi Masche Romero Gaitan

  13. BATISTUTA: “Icardi not getting call up? Argentina can’t call all forwards. Right now, Icardi doesn’t have a place but neither does Tevez”

    “Higuain, my heir? Press says so but I don’t know. I’m happy with what I did in my career. He can be better or worse, who knows”

  14. I’m surprised to see Bauza getting decent to good metrics on player selection when in fact the majority expressed that:
    1) Banega needs to be replaced by Lanzini
    2) Biglia and Mascherano combo is a death recipe to the midfield
    3) Romero should be benched for a better goalie
    4) Di Maria shouldn’t start, he’s a waste with a junk attitude at the moment
    5) Icardi must start along side with Messi
    6) Rojo is red card player type with no real defensive quality
    7) Alario and Pratto are not the answer to obtaining a lethal attack

    So what’s left except for Messi? Since Bauza got it wrong in every particular position, why are we kidding ourselves and pretend he’s doing a good job???? Based on which criteria?

    • You live in a fancy land with fairies, cuh. How is your FIFA PS game going? LOL You guys are the most delude football fans I have ever come across. Lazini?

      Why not just play the 2016 Olympic squad for the rest of the 2018 qualifiers?

      Back in the year 2011, you had an experimental Argentina team, really young team, got embarrassed by Nigeria and Poland in what was friendly games. Talk is cheap man, talk is cheap!!

      • You want to judge Argetina young players after that Batista experiments when they has played together for the first time? Give him 80 matches together in NT(as Di Maria has) and we will see what they can. BTW I remember also Zabaleta against Poland in 2011.
        No one want fullfill all the team with youngsters but just a few to add new energy and future perspectives.

        The worst thing is that someone want to input us no matter how weak are some of our players – we have not better.

    • Very accurate points.
      Bauza is good coach no doubt but like previous coaches he is not independent.
      Some players in the squad,afa,media are influencing the selection.
      That is why we see the likes of romero,rojo playing.
      Few weeks ago i read di maria interview in which he guaranteed himself a place at the 2018 world cup roster.it is unbelievable.

      • “Few weeks ago i read di maria interview in which he guaranteed himself a place at the 2018 world cup roster.it is unbelievable”.

        Absoluteley agree. It’s something unnaceptable

  15. Spain just didn’t call up fabregas and azpilicueta.. 2players with good reputation.
    Italy ..Spain..have new manager and they call up players with how they want to play..and as much as i remember there’s so far no traces of bauzas idea PS changing the formation against Venezuela was great.
    I still believe in bauza but his player selection have raised questions mark so far..every manager has their favourite player ..I am interested to see bauzas

    • Azpilicueta was never going to start ahead of Juan Fran. Then you have Héctor Bellerín who is playing UCL football with Arsenal. Fabregas is easily replaced by Koke (Atlety) and Thiago Alcantara (Bayern Munich). So there is no comparison with Argentina situation. The players being call up in their places are playing in the UCL for Bayern, Atelty and Arsenal.

  16. ”Not saying others are not good,but naturally it takes time to settle and perform.
    Inclusion of youngsters into nt is tricky matter for everyone except for Germany.”

    The reason why Germany has it much easier to integrate young players to the senior team comes down to their domestic league. Germany made an effort to invest close to a billion dollar in their football program over the last 15 years which paid off for them up to this day. Let’s not act like Germany just throw a mediocre player on the pitch and all of a sudden he then becomes a good player because, ‘’Germany knows how to integrate young players’’ better than every other nation.

    Germany won the 2009 European U21 tournament with guys like Mesut Ozil, Jerome Boateng, Sami Khedira, Mats Hummels, Howedes, Manuel Neuer, Schmelzer etc. This gave them experience heading into the 2010 world cup which makes integrating into the senior team much easier.

    On the European club level, German teams consistently take part in the UCL, it gives teams like Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Leverkusen, Monchengladbach, Schalke, and Bayern Munich an arena to expose their home base young players on the UCL stage which is only second to the FIFA international world cup when it comes to tournaments.

    The Bender twins from Germany has been playing UCL football with Leverkusen/Dortmund since they came on the football stage. Mario Gotze and Marco Reus made their names playing for Dortmund in the UCL. Matthias Ginter is only 22 years old and he is playing first team football for Dortmund in this season UCL. Max Meyer is 21 and he is already playing European football with Schalke. Joshua Kimmich is 21 years old at he is already getting UCL football at Bayern Munich. The Bayern Munich backline is made up of the Germany senior team backline; Neuer, Hummels, Boateng and Badstuber (when healthy). These guys will be playing together this season and the season after before the 2018 world cup, this put Germany at a superior advantage over most of the 2018 world cup contenders. Seriously, anyone who doesn’t think Lowe have an easy hand here is kidding themselves. This is why integrating young players into the German team is much easier than say Argentina or Brazil whom majority of their players are splintered all over the place from South America, Europe, Asia, and North America (Mexico).

    Outside of Germany, you have Mesut Ozil playing UCL football with Arsenal. Leroy Sane and iIlkay Gundogan are both playing UCL with Man City. In Spain, you have Toni Kroos playing UCL football with Real Madrid. In Italy, you have Sami Khedira playing UCL football with Juventus. Majority of these players are midfielders and defenders which makes up the core of the German NT.

    Argentina greatest strength was their youth football teams going back several decades now. The Argentina youth structure today is a JOKE which adds nothing to the senior team other than the usual next ‘’great’’ strikers. The players being mention here like Lazini, Pereyra, Ascacibar, Marcone, and Paredes are the level of midfield players Argentina fans sees as the shining light on the hill. How low has this team gotten? From a team that was producing some of the best midfielders in world football to now mediocre level midfield talents. When was the last time a young Argentinean midfield player was a standout in a top European club? Better yet, when was the last time any top European clubs made it an effort to buy a young Argentinean midfield player? Bloggers here want Buaza to stuff his team with average EPL players like Lazini (West ham), Pereyra (Watford) and Yacob (West Brom Albian). The last time I check, Buaza was the coach of the Argentina NT and not Slovenia or Switzerland or Austria or Belgium (I mean no disrespect my European brothers).

    The club world cup is a perfect example of how South American football has fallen way behind. Long time ago, when South America would send a team to the club world cup, the match up with Europe was always 50/50, now it’s like 85-90% chance of a European team lifting the club world cup before a ball being kick. Back in the days Boca Junior was one of the best clubs in world football, they were up there with the likes of Juventus, Real, Barcelona and Manchester United. Now, Boca Junior has become a shadow of what they were two – three decades ago. The same goes for the Brazilian and Colombian leagues, they had some of the best club teams in world football long time ago, now their league has gone downhill.

    • very well written
      This is what some people don’t understand
      currently no player can solve Argentina’s midfield problem.the coach needs to shake things up
      balance is key and well reputed names only do not give that
      but none of pereyra lanzini yacob ascavibar kranevitter seems to be the solution they are no rakitic iniesta Kroos modric
      I still though believe di Maria bqnega masche midfield will do by different approach

    • Haha, specialst of Boca situation. Boca has his ups and downs still. They were not far from final last CL season and this season they are better. Besides Boca is not best Argentina club at the moment

    • I did not elaborate why it is easy for Germany to integrate young players,because it has been discussed before.Germany youngsters are more matured than Argentine ones,because German youngster play in level where football level is high i.e UCL.Even French are ahead of us in that regard.

      Our brightest youngsters never play together in youth teams.Not only that many of them are bench warmer for their respective clubs,even one of the best talents we have like Correa.Our own Mundo members will testify why Simeone is a genius to bench him,how Vietto learned a lot just by training with Atletico,but again will cry when no youngster make into the senior team.

      Compare our current youngsters with young Requelme,Veron,Cambiasso,Mascherano,
      Maxi,Coloccini,Burdisso.You will see there is huge difference in maturity and performance.Requelme was Requelme at the age of 22.Even though none of Burdisso,Coloccini or Saviola,D’allesandro turned into world bests but they were way ahead of their age during their youth team days.

      It is not mistake of one or two people.The whole system is flawed.And we all know that.So we need stop bashing Bauza in every comment.He is in the mud from the beginning,but we all are pretending that he has apples of paradise but refuses to serve us.And I don’t know what guys you expect,it is not like AFA selected Bauza ahead of Guardiola.Our first choice managers turned us down….Simeone,Pochettino,Sampaoli,Berizzo,Bielsa… all of them.Bauza,Diaz,Russo,Pumpido were the 2nd tier list.You can’t expect first class management from 2nd class manager.Accept this,you will land in real life and your role in Mundo community will be a lot more constructive.

Comments are closed.