San Marino, Malta, Moldova, Liechtenstein as possible Argentina opponents

By
Roy Nemer
-
67
Paulo Dybala Eduardo Salvio Argentina
Paulo Dybala and Eduardo Salvio training with the Argentina National Team.

With Argentina’s friendly match on Saturday against Israel reportedly called off, reports are already emerging about possible opponents.

The news hasn’t stopped coming in since word broke out that the match between the teams would be suspended. Per a few reports, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin NETANYAHU has apparently called Argentina president Mauricio MACRI about trying to get the match back on.

It doesn’t end there. Fox Sports in Argentina are reporting that the AFA are already working on trying to find an opponent for Saturday and four countries have been mentioned. San Marino, Malta, Moldova and Liechtenstein are the countries being rumored.

Nothing is confirmed yet but we will keep you updated on it all.

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67 Comments

  2. I think Messi has sound financial advisors. By cancelling the Israel match, I think he avoided a potential disaster to his brand name among the muslim community, which is most likely far more valuable compared with the Israel market. So, I don’t believe it was of humanitarian reason that he wanted to cancel the match, more likely of financial.

    • Messi , Mascherano and Sampaoli go in front as leaders and they speak for the rest 21 players. it was not only Messi s decide. just everybody put in front only his name. in end doesn t matter for me why game cancelled.

  3. Sampaoli playing dimaria in right today in training welcome change and lanzini playing left

  4. As much as I try to see positive in Islam religion, everytime it comes back to bite mankind. I have been reading comments by people who are obviously muslims decrying the Israel match and the Argentina team since long. As per their narrative Israel is terrorist country. History has enough evidence to support counter argument as well. Also, counter argument against whose citizens and children are suffering more. What’s very difficult for me to fathom is that I see Muslims from different countries, countries which have their own problems – are more bothered about Palestine’s Mulsim populace than their own countrymen. Because for Islam and its followers, religion is all that matters. Country, sports etc. can be trampled under their juggernaut of righteous religion.
    What has happened here has definitely derailed the preparation of Argentina and it will surely leave a big psychological scar on players. AFA has to be be blamed the most, no doubt.
    However, being a silent but regular follower of this blog, I am saddened by all the openly religious and some cases venomous messages put on openly by followers of a religion rather than followers of a football team here. Rather than being concerned about the impact this has on the team, my muslim brothers are enjoying as if Argentina won world cup and suddenly Higuain is a fan favourite for them. Ofcourse, they have never been a true fan of the game or Argentina team. As long as the religion is upheld, it does not matter who gets impacted.
    Ofcourse, I hope Argentina wins or at least makes till SF, but this has not helped at all. And ofcourse, right from the beginning I thought AFA should have avoided this.

    • Unfortunately we arrive to this point because from beginning AFA make mess the team preparation.
      they look the money first and not what is the best for the team. i know the financial in AFA is very bad last years and they need so much those money. just they should have think more smart from begin.
      anyway. for the rest i don t have desire to make comment because i don t want to put myself in to politics and religion matters. i have opinion but i will keep it for myself. i am Argentinian Catholic and sure the way of view the things is completely different than the rest of fans in this blog. every human have different culture and different religion. so that means different way of view. just i respect all of them because we all love Argentina national team. so they are like my brothers.

    • Better to choose your word carefully, we are people from different faith. It is wise to cancel the match as it is wrong from the beginning.

      Other than this, just talk about the sport aspect, because it is why we are here.

    • Diego , I don’t know why a ‘true Argentina fan’ like you will want Argentina team to go Middle east 5 days prior to world cup and spend three days there when world cup is in Europe . I know you are a bigger Argentina fan than Sampauli who opposed playing in Israel at the first place. Shifting this match to Jerusalem was totally a political move by Israel as this match was about to held in Haifa. They wanted to use Argentina and Messi to fulfill the celebration of Trump’s Embassy shifting to Jerusalem, a move took more then hundreds lives and worldwide protests. Why ‘a true Argentina fan ‘ will want his beloved team being used in a mean political purpose ? I don’t think Argentina’s preparation will be derailed due to not playing against a 98th ranked team or there will be any mental problem among players rather they will be relaxed as they don’t have to travel hundreds of miles to involve in world worst political chaos. Not going to the argument of who is right among Palestinies and Israelies but whoever you are you will feel sympathy for the people of your own culture .So Muslims here are obviously happier as their beloved team has not ignored the urge of the people of their own culture. Every Argentina fan and every football fan should be happy today that world’s most loved player is not going to be used for a bloody political purpose.

      • agree with this.
        it would have been more stressful if they went
        the friendly could have easily been played in Spain, or even in Argentina
        but it was a political move by the Israel goverment

        i do agree we need to keep religion separate to football

    • I am not muslim, nor christian, nor jewish.. and I am SO HAPPY this game was cancelled. Israel is essentially an apartheid state (they treat non jews as second class citizens) and they have royally screwed over the Palestinian people. Just these past weeks they have been snipping head shots at unarmed children because they protest the fact they are locked into an ever shrinking inhumane concentration camp with no hope of a future. Any past agreements get broken, bulldozed. There is a massive imbalance of military and financial power. The fact that Israel had the balls to claim Jerusalem as their capital recently tells you everything you need to know. They moved the Argentina game from a much more neutral stadium to Jerusalem to make a political point of legitimacy. Its not just Palestinians that are, rightfully, upset, its not just muslims that see the injustice there and the fact Israel is a military arm of the US, etc.. its the whole world that sees how fucked the situation is today and has been for decades. Its childish, its selfish, its evil and its sad that a people with a history of genocide are essentially doing the same now they are in a position of power, abuse gets snowballed multi generationally. The only people that see what Israel is doing as acceptable are religiously biased, blind, irrational or seeking to profit of the blood of others.

      Israel is a shit futbol team, flying there makes zero sense before a World Cup, politically it makes negative sense.. the ONLY reason the AFA booked the game was because Israel threw MILLIONS at them to get the game. They deserve the cancellation. That money should be going to help the Palestinians, not AFA, and any one who thinks differently backs murder.

  5. it is very difficault now to find oponent for friendly the last moment. even if we find it will be very weak team.
    so there isn t point for me. i hope things go well for the team in end. 10 days left till the game against Iceland.

  8. The game between Argentina and Israel was cancelled when Lionel Messi refused to go there and said he is a human before a footballer. All the financial losses due to cancellation of game will be accomodated by the Argentine forward Messi. (Radio La Albiceleste)..

    What a legend…You already won the world’s heart…CUP doest n’t matter..

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  11. Perhaps a match against Catalonia can be quickly arranged. Messi and few others can use their influence for this. A match against a team that would have the likes of Kiko Casilla, Marc Bartra, Martin Montoya, Sergi Roberto, Sergi Samper, Cesc Fabregas, Gerard Deolefeu, etc will serve as a good final preparation.

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  12. Gonzalo Higuain to espn :
    “They’ve finally done the right thing.”..

    If even players were against tgis match, (Messi had expressed his wish to visit & play in the city of god before this world cup, though) AFA did a really embarrassing job. They are lowering the standard every time. This idiots had full squad for almost 20 days a they can’t fix two proper friendly matches. Well-done idiots.!

  13. I think we should play against any European team that play defensively. Let the match either be a test for our defense or defense.

    The match can be arranged at the Camp Nou itself (Unless some maintenance work is going on there).

    • Camp Nuo is unavailable in June month for matches. That is the reason for the cancellation of that -highly publicised in Catalonia- “Catalonia vs Argentina” ( on June 4) match.
      Venue might be FC Girona’s home ground. With just around 15k capacity…
      If they can get RCDE stadium, it would have been better.. but will be difficult considering that the team is Espanyol & there us hardly 4 days.

  14. If it’s among these teams finally, then Argentina should opt Moldova. They have a decent record recently.
    AFA should try our India before opting for San Marino,Malta & all…. We play better football than these European teams.

  15. If they actually win the World Cup I can’t wait to see the movie of it all!

    This is a crazy story through qualifying, 3 coaches and finals lost and then this.

    Vamos

  16. Why can’t they just play Israel in Catalonia!
    After all the problem for cancellation was The burden of extra travel for our team & the politics surrounding the holy city of Jerusalem.!
    I don’t think even palastein have any problem with Argentina playing Israel, a Fifa member.

    • Palestine has said they have no issue with any other venue. But I think Israel would not play anywhere else. Easy to understand why.

      • We don’t know that…
        What they discussed..
        May be AFA could have negotiated it with them, because it is good for them as well, since this would be a face saver for them.. they can explain this to their audience as a way to avoid traveling of a World cup team..
        They might have accepted the proposal..

        After all it’s very bad for the team to go to world cup without a proper friendly..
        Except Moldova rest can’t even be called as football team… it’s killing a last chance for sampoli & co to do proper make ups before the cup.

      • They moved the embassy to Jerusalem as a show of force, and now they are trying to get the world to legitimize it. Its their own stupid fault, had they keot the game at the original stadium, not in Jerusalem, no one would care.

        • What i read in news, they changed the venue because of security reasons that the old venue was near to Iran border or something

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  17. A score in double figures could be possible against these teams where some players have day jobs like butcher or mailman. I guess even Higuain can end his 2 year draught. 😀

  18. Why Ansaldi is not being picked over Mercado.Ansaldi is much better than Mercado.For Sampoli’s plan Ansaldi is better.Mercado is only good defensively.His recent Sevilla season was disaster.He can not dribble.

  22. I think as Israel friendly is cancelled we may not see any friendly before wc.thats a bad preparation we should play a friendly atleast to see players fitness and give them the confidence I would take Luxembourg also.play dybala aguero Mesa pavon biglia Armani ansaldi etc

  24. THANK YOU THANK YOU AFA!!! I was having a big dilemma to abstain from this WC because of this canceled friendly against Israel the occupier !!!! it would be so painful to see Messi visiting Israel when there might be some blood stain of a child drying up who was killed by Israeli sniper a few weeks back!!! Thank you a great nation Argentina!!! NEWS!! Bangladesh turned into Argentina!! Hundreds of thousands of Argentine flags waving ALL OVER THE COUNTRY!! AND THIS NEWS WILL CREATE MORE FLAGS!! VAMOS ARGENTINA!!!! FUERZA MESSI!!

  25. A good decision by the team to cancelled the Israel Match as it will brings only headlines and political issue, nothing is gained from football review. Better have a European option team than to traveled far away, save the energy and focus on internal training.

  27. Very good call, Messi & Co can’t get involved in any controversy.Also hope that we haven’t pissed off the Illuminati. 😀

  30. Well it’s about time Argentina play against one of these teams. When the European big teams play against them and win by huge margin it’s plastered all over world football website front pages. Liechtenstein and Malta are pretty decent teams. Argentina front line need goal scoring confidence going into the world cup, no matter what, a win gives confidence, and a 5-6 goals boost will help the overall team. Playing a tougher opponent than the above mention teams won’t fix anything we already don’t know. At the end of the day, Argentina main strength is their attack, let’s get it well oiled before the world cup. Uruguay will play against Uzbekistan, I’m sure this game is design to make sure both Cavani and Suarez are in good goal scoring form going into the world cup.

  32. I think there will be more of a challenge if we played 11 v 11 for 45 minutes. Or, let’s get all four of those nations and let them play us simultaneously, they’ll have a better chance.

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