Argentina press conference by Ever BANEGA and Jorge SAMPAOLI

By
Roy Nemer
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132
Ever Banega Argentina
Ever Banega playing for Argentina.

Argentina coach Jorge SAMPAOLI as well as Ever BANEGA held a press conference on Friday ahead of the Round of 16 match.

It was the birthday boy Ever BANEGA who today turns 30 and coach Jorge SAMPAOLI who represented the team at the press conference. SAMPAOLI spoke about the line-up, Lionel MESSI, the team and more. Here’s what he had to say:

“I haven’t confirmed the starting line-up to the players. We are very confident in our capabilities and the preparation we’ve had. It’s a team that will play the match with a lot of heart.

“We train different things for the match. I told MESSI that we were going to use a plan which we had already trained, a more offensive one. We are in the process of imposing an Argentinean style of play.

“If we defend without the ball, the capabilities of our players will be less than the rival. We will try to dominate the match by having possession of the ball.”

The coach also spoke about France who will want to neutralize Lionel MESSI.

“France has a plan to neutralize Leo (MESSI) and we have a plan to better that. They will try to live off our lack of precision during the game. They will try to force errors.

“France’s great strength is the speed in which they transition. Defensively, they are very solid when they recover the ball and attack quickly. After that, they get a lot of goals within three or four touches.”

Jorge SAMPAOLI praised MESSI and stated that we will see a fighting Argentina as he used a phrase made famous by Diego SIMEONE.

“We have to be at his (Lionel MESSI’s) level at all times. MESSI sees things that only a genius can see.

“Argentina will play with a knife in between their teeth. I dream of seeing an Argentina with a lot of passion but above all with a lot of football. In this group, the feeling for the shirt is very strong. That makes this team very dangerous for anyone.”

And finally, SAMPAOLI spoke about himself:

“The analysis of the match will have to do with the results. I’ll be an excelent coach if we win and if we lose, I’ll be a very bad one. I’ve come to a place I wanted to come. I am very happy to be here and fight every day.”

Birthday boy Ever BANEGA had this to say in regards to his assist to Lionel MESSI’s goal against Nigeria:

“With respect to the pass to MESSI’s goal, all I had to do was raise my head to cross the ball. He did all the rest. It’s always a pleasure to play next to Leo MESSI. We know how he is as a player.”

As for the team, BANEGA hopes the team can get better:

“Hopefully we can continue to get better. I always try and bring my best. I’ve played a lot of years in Europe and I’ve gained a lot of experience. It was difficult for us but luckily we were able to win.”

Here’s Ever BANEGA’s assist to Lionel MESSI’s goal from a different angle.

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132 Comments

  5. german ex suparstar lothar mathius said argentina’s wc journey will be stooped against france.

  6. We did not defend or attack unitedly yet. That caused pressure and nervous on quality individuals. And the results are in front of us. Other teams are not responsible for our lack of unity and nervousness during attack and defend.
    Apply all experience of skills and quick vision to make life difficult of opponent teams till 90 minute.

  8. I believe Higuain and Di Maria should start the match in order to run their ass off and press. They should then be replaced by Aguero and Dybala in the 60th as these guys are more clinical finishers than the two former. I also rate them as more reliable penalty shooters. Vamos Argentina!

  9. France game would suit Di maria and Higuain.Banega would have much free space.Enzo style would suit this game.Taglafico might have some problem but he always tries his best.Messi would be more of a creator than scorer.Mascherano needs to shield defence line Otamendi can take part in corners.Rojo would go for running tackles or defending header.Mercado would defend well

  11. Pressure.. pressure..pure pressure.. but today game give the mind set of the team.. all the best Argentina.. believe in Banega more than Messi..

  13. Wow… I couldn’t sleep last night.. only 3 hours left, I am excited yet nervous.. I kept watching highlights of France in friendlies and world cup games. France tends to make mistakes in the back if you high pressure. I hope huguain starts.. both teams haven’t really showed up yet, but we have messi…

    Vamos Carajo!

  16. In a way playing in the knockouts can be more straightforward. 120 minutes plus penalties is a long time to achieve your objective.This is where our experience can play a big role. I just hope we defend well. As long as we do that we can beat or outlast any team.

    • True I wouldn’t be surprised if sampaoli brings Caballero as the last sub if it’s going for penalties. I hope we don’t going to need that and can beat France in 90min.

  18. Argentina can succeed if they play slow game with possession when they are in counter attack.
    if they do possession we can go for full Pace

    sabella always used to do the same method where he used vs peru, bolivia, Brazil and paraguay

  19. It seems that France gets too confident. They will use an ultra attacking line up with their fantastic four against us. Dambele, Griezmann, Mbappe; and Giroud upfront are strongly rumored to start. The first 3 are very fast, it it almost certain that they are deadly in counter attack, but I think they want to win the midfield and control the match with Pogba and Kante patrolling the midfield.

    The good thing about them starting their fantastic four is that they must look a bit worse defensively if they choose Dambele instead of Matuidi to start.

    According to ole, Pavon has a slightly bigger chance to start, which means that we will play Messi as false nine for the first time since Guardiola era and Batista era. Well Sabella occasionally played Messi as false 9 in his fantastic four days, but not really false 9.

    Guardiola’s Messi was the most lethal soccer player ever, but it took a lot of practice to be on that level.
    Batista tried to copy that with Lavezzi and Di Maria on Messi’s side, but it only worked in friendly where we beat (if I am not mistaken) Portugal 1-0. So I have to say Batista’s false 9 did not work.

    The idea of Messi as false 9 is simple, it is meant to open up more space in the center since the center backs have to think about the attack from the wings too, but again, it is a bit risky to me to try it now without ever trying it.

    The advantage of having Pavon and Di Maria on the side is they must do better defensively containing France wing attack from Pavard-Dambele from the left and Hernandez-Mbappe from the right.

    So we’ll see. If Messi is confident that he can even play better as false 9, then let him do it. Di Maria has his best season of his career in terms of scoring the goals. He will be needed to score for us if Messi plays false 9.

    Another advantage of playing false 9 is Kante, France best marker, has to split the job between marking Messi and Banega. If they put Pogba on Banega, then Perez, who is our box to box will be all over.

    • Its done (false 9) to create numeric advantages in midfield. But the wingers needs to score for this formation to work assuming we aren’t going to see Messi from 2011.

      Think of it as Liverpool’s Firimino who creates space and Mane n Salah score goals.

      I’m not saying Messi cannot score goals like in 2011, but if he plays there alone he will be isolated and the only opportunities he’ll have is in transitions.

  20. For the sake of continuity, I hope Sampaoli stays until the next Copa. Having said that, the whole mess regarding our team has been Sampaoli’s fault. He has been very clever in deflecting the blame on Messi by continuously saying “Messi’s team”. Yet other than Icardi’s exclusion, all I see is Sampaoli’s footprints. He changed team each time we played. Meza keeps getting into the team with no “friends club” membership. Salvio playing the first two matches at right back? then comes the totally confusing substitutions. A trade mark of Sampaoli has been late substitutions. He asks Messi to sub on Aguero at a time when the game was almost over. Aguero should’ve been on the pitch half an hour earlier. Asking Messi in front of cameras looks like a ploy to deflect blame from his own shoulder.

    After all his constant tinkering and talks in the press, he has failed to do the simplest of tasks – put together a team that play together. So now we are back to the Sabella’s era using his formation and his players because we were almost out of the world cup after two games. After a month’s practice, there’s nothing on the pitch that shows any sign of preparation. At this stage, I don’t know what to expect from my team. We know how our opponents going to play. But we don’t know how our team is going to play. In addition, I am afraid that Sampaoli will wait until 65/70/80minutes to make any favorable change. This is really saddening.

  21. Now some says it’s difficult to score against France. They conceded just one and that’s from penalty. The case was same for Nigeria they conceded a penalty and an own goal before coming against them. We scored two beautiful goals there.
    And some says Argentina defense is very bad they conceded against every teams. The same was said against Nigeria but they needed a soft penalty to score against us.
    We are not the team we faced Croatia. Team got spirit back, much pressure off, playing known formation, and Messi & Banega in form. This team will still improve and grow the confidence.
    Hope Argentina scores first and maintain the tempo.

    • @insider please keep saying bad things about Messi and the team, don’t be positive, last time you were negative we won so please stay as negative.

  22. Its great to see Argentina coming of the group and that’s what I wanted; Argentina destroying and moving on in the competition.
    I will never want Argentina to lose for the so called rebuilding, as the “rebuilding” is already upon the authorities due to lack of major trophies for decades.

    Team’s confidence, mentality and determination is much better than going into the game against France than Croatia.

    Peru has come against France, they prepared for them and did well enough as per their level. So, I hope Argentina coaching staff and certain players can communicate with the team members of Peru for advise.

    Especially GARECA, our possible future coach, has some great/valuable tips to share with Argentina for France.

    As always, I hope Argentina wins!!!

  23. I dreamt last night Higuain missed a sitter

    More than likely France will win today and it may even be after extra time

    I’m not going to watch it again, going to go out for dinner with my family and I will check the score later

    I don’t “expect” Argentina to win so I can’t bear to see the look on Messi face

    Fingers crossed though !!!!

  25. Frankly speaking I thought the Match vs Nigeria was our last in this WC. And i was prepared mentally to deal with the absence of Argentina in the WC and wait for 4 years again as usual. But we got a chance again, So let us enjoy the match and Hope every player will give their heart out like they did in the last game. All the best guys…

  26. The only way argentina has any chance of winning this is to sit back and defend, don’t have too much of the ball. Possession game with a high line defence is recipe for disaster against the speed of Mbappe and Greizman. French midfield has too much quality to let us dominate the game there. Sit back, get rid of the ball, play the ball out to runners like DiMaria and Pavon and hope to catch them on the counter. I don’t see more than one goal from argentina in this game.

  27. Argentina unbeaten in the last 40 World Cup games when scored first (W35 D5).
    40 games unbeaten in that fashion, in 60 years… !
    So score first Argentina.. score.

  28. Maschreno need to be told raising arm without any reason doesn’t offer any immunity to sloppiness
    He has direct rivalry with kante
    Who has 10 lungs
    He isn’t sure what is to be done
    That is hurting us
    In all world cups he has done more errors and lesser help
    He was always like this
    It’s just that we have lesser players to cover up the error
    Yes he can bleed for nation

  29. Argentina gives best performance when all says them underdogs
    When we drew with Iceland & lost to Croatia we were favourite before the game……But when everybody referring France better than us..we will play our best..
    ..my opinion again same as I said before Nigeria game…
    Don’t concede….
    …..please Don’t Concede….
    .vamos…..Vamos…..Vamos….

    Love to see our players other than messi will have lots of shot on goal outside the box..

    Hope Pavon ..Dimaria scores

  30. I know many of you will disagree….but if Mascherano gets a yellow card we should bring in Biglia in stead of him. I am very afraid that Mascherano will get sent off today. He is not what he was and his desperation could mean bookings.
    Also Mercado, Rojo and Otamendi smell bookings.

  31. To go out and attack France is pure suicide, in my opinion. France do not have much creativity in midfield, they are all about speed and strenght and counter attack. If we play a low counter attacking 4-4-2, and try to get rid of the sloppy passes from Mascherano and the centre backs and not make dribbles in defence(like Rojo against Nigeria)we have a chance. France really struggle against compact teams. But we need to be 100% focused all the time. Hope Rojo is not cocky after his great moment last game, he should kick the ball in the stands not try to dribble.
    If we play attacking possesion football we will lose, it will be an easy game for France and Mbappe and Griezmann will have a field day. But those same players struggle when they do not have space.
    Messi will get surrounded by Kante, Matuidi, Umtiti and Hernandez every time he gets the ball. So he should play it quickly to a team mate. I can assure you 100% that Deschampes has told his players that one of their biggest chances to score will be if Messi drops deep and starts to dribble……if they get the ball from him in such a situation Mbappe will all of a sudden be played through on goal.
    ANYTHING is possible in this game, it really suits us to not be the favourite. My concern is that we have so few players on the field that can score….realisticly it is only Messi.

  33. I have great respect for Desailly but he’s croaking like a fuckin frog about how France is going to win…and so are hundreds of pundits and thousands of opponent fans… feed on this Albiceleste.. take this with your bare hands and eat it…this is the adversity that feeds our fire…the fire in which we’re going to pit-roast these bastards with our performance..

    if we win they’ll all eat their words… and go to hell.

    Else we should still be singing with pride about how we went down fighting and throwing punches like no one imagined and how France barely survived this encounter..

    Committed Performance that’s all i ask.

    The rest of the world that doesn’t give us a chance can go f×+k itself.

  34. Guys this France team is massively overrated the expensive players couldn’t perform as a unit. We are growing under our new coaches Masche/Messi 🙂 (Sampa is just a spoke person for now) We will win this 2-0. Vamos Carajo!!!!

  37. Most of the experts and predictors think that france are gonna win cos their players are well rested and they have a number of star players.

    However, the experts do not know that after our epic victory, the spirits of our players are very high now, our players are all on fire. i think we have the highest spirits among all teams in the world cup.

    France struggled against Australia and Peru, even though they have lots of stars, they failed to impress me as a team.

    I believe we can beat france.

  38. Fox sports predicting France to win by 3 or 4 goals . Lol what a joke we are now a days ? Lets win France and prove these bastards wrong. Im sure Argentina will rip off France by minimum two goals and then reach to quarter finals.

  39. Duriing the last 10min of thr nigeria game .. i was “damn is this the last game i will be watching argentina play at this WC” and it really got me depressed ..
    So i am going to just enjoy watching out team play .. IDC team selection and formations .. just going to enjoy watching the game and i will be greedy and hope we win so i can watch another game.. 😂
    I feel blessed for the game today coz argentina is playing

  40. We need to defend well and counterattack
    All 11 will have to defend
    Cut their forwards
    Play like mexico did with Germany
    Sudden burst of pace
    France will get caught

      • I donot think we should though.

        To bank on pace against this France is stupid with our squad… Kante Pogba Mbappe Dembele Mataudi are electric fast even we we leave out Griezmann.. never mind if they manage to commit players to our box.. they have quality to hit us…

        They are played a 4-4-2 last game and 4-2-3-1 before that but in neither did their midfield look solid.. they have atleast 4-5 players in the lineup who are best at going forward .. Pogba included… I think we can surely boss that midfield.. if we are deep these players will only have to attck.. let them defend , let them chase the ball and make mistakes.. They have goals in them I donot trust this defense like last WC but I trust we can get a few goals… we have to guard against their break I know .. we have to defend well and make sure we donot let them reach our box … but I will bet that we can control the ball for long spells and frustrate them… they like to press and they play a direct game like Nigeria though with a lot more quality… mark their getaway players and not let them be on the ball..

        Also talk of “agressive team” scares me… no weird positioning.. no ACUNA NO SALVIO NO MEZA please.. time and again Sampaoli makes changes that destroy our shape… hope the team finds a shape and the players under pressure can hold it.. All teams with discipline cornered this immature French side.
        Di Maria has been absolute shit but as he broke down after that Nigeria match I felt the pressure he felt.. I hope he comes to play tomorrow.. a 50% of the Di Maria of old will make Pavard shit his pants .. please come to party..
        One last battle for the old guards 🙁
        VAMOS!!

  41. I see the optimists have made a strong comeback here. On the basis of what? a 85th minute goal scored by an out of place defender?? The idea of playing Messi as false 9 will be another blunder. Maybe even before the first half ends sampaoli will have to send in Aguero or higuain. This game is totally loaded in favour of France. Hope we are not embarrassed at the end of the day.

    • False 9 Messi is still one of the deadliest strikers in the world.
      “Out of place”- Aguero tactically lured 3 defenders so Rojo could smash the winning goal. It was planned.
      “Loaded in Favour of France”- Just as France was loaded to rape Australia, Peru and Denmark but got away with just an odd goal and a draw
      Oh please, this is pretty much an even contest. This is no longer the Argentina of the first two games. There is a system in place and will be an even match for France. May the best team win.
      “Optimists?”- We are realists. You are, a skeptic.

    • yes right I guess you missed the fact that Masche fell back as a CB and was allowing Rojo to play LB as we switched out tagliafico… so no… he wasn’t out of place… our wide midfielder first Di Maria then Meza were staying wide to let Tagliafico and Rojo advance inside them all game instead of overlapping outside… tagliafico almost made past the back line from the Banega pass in first half…. so Rojo had advanced were the LB runs were intended to… and Aguero run cleared him… I guess the wide man allowed him to be unmarked too as the WBs were forced to stay wide and by the time he came in for Rojo he was too late… but then who cares for tactics.. if you can sound like a know it all and look down on us mere optimists…

      Yes False 9 Messi is tough but it depends on implementation and can work

      and well if its loaded in their favor we are underdogs… nothing to be embarrassed at all

      Before commenting in fan groups watch some football… Vamos

  42. I think Higuain will score today as he is master of round 16 or first knock out game.I am quite sure about our defence.All four defenders are playing their heart out with Banega having flashes of skills.His defence splitting passes are awesome I want to see more of them.Today Di Maria will have space to breath.So he will have good match
    For France Varane is good.He is good defender but not against Higuain.

  43. I am calm in my head..a feeling I didn’t have so far in this WC regarding Arg’s fortunes. After coming from the brink like that last match it gives you a sense of clarity that is devoid of fear or anxiety. All I feel is an openness regarding the outcome but faith in the team and their abilities.

    I hope the team feels the same way too.

    • Absolutely same feeling. Now there is nothing to loose as this is our second life any qualification to next stage is bonus. I thought it would be very difficult to come to a situation where we will not be considered as favorites. Well here we are everyone has written us off and there is no fear of outlash.

      Probably the best time to write history.

      Vamos Albiceleste!

      • That feeling is called acceptance. The fact that we had gone through by the skin of the teeth, exit at any stage now and we would be calm and accept that well, we were actually this close to not even qualifying for the second round. But sorry, I want us to be champions. Let’s do this and focus on France. Play well play calm score and win it. No more performances like how we played Croatia please…

  44. All what we need as fans and supporters is to see and feel the passion… the passion which will allow you to fight for every single ball…. being sharp in the game without mistakes particulary in dangerous area…. qucik transitions….using the subs wisely in the right times…. confiedence and we will win… i have a feeling that we will go through…. Benega.. we need the same performance…. messi/mascharno please encourage all the players and ask the fans to cheer loudly till the end…. i am sure we will have more supporters than france and this is the player No. 12….
    Vamos…. vamos… vamos argentina

  45. I can see some flashes of Riquelme in Banega. He is so important to our team. we have to put him in the centre of the action.
    we will win!

  46. Vamos Argentina
    Sabes que yo te quiero
    Hoy hay que ganar y ser primero
    Esta hinchada loca, dejo todo por la copa
    La que tiene a Messi y Maradona

    Ponga huevo vaya al frente Argentina
    Ponga huevo vaya al frente jugadores
    Este año tenemos que dar la vuelta
    No vinimo’ todo’ a Rusia a ser campeones

    VAMOS ARGENTINA !!!

  47. No negative comments please and lets ignore those that are trying to put us down. No matter which team or which 11 play tomorrow, I want to see the same passion, heart, and smartness (some of which we saw against Nigeria). The French are tough, they are young strong and fast, but they havent really shown anything, they dont have the X factor that we do. I expect a tough battle but we will win the war. VAMOS Argetina !

  48. I don’t about you guys. I’m a Bangladeshi and it’s 5.15am here. I couldn’t sleep the whole night. No matter who occupies the field I just want to see the grit, passion, heart and football from my beloved team.

    Vamos Argentina

    • don t worry. everything will go well. you will see passion and heart from our guys.
      you will be proud one more time.

      for us here is 8.35 evening and the game start 11 morning.

      i feel peaceful that everything will go well.
      don t worry.

  50. Messi eliminated by Germany every world cup but this time no Germany so messi is going to win🏆

  52. I was reading La Nacion this afternoon and something caught my eye that enraged me. There was an editorial piece in there translated to castellano written by none other than Lothar Mathaus saying Argentina will lose.

    First, even if we lose we did better than the piece of shit German team filled with booger eating and crotch smelling coaches and players. Second, why would any self respecting Argentine print this trash from a German? Third, what is Germany’s infatuation with Argentina?

    It absolutely enraged me, and I know it is off topic, but I figure the only people that would understand my anger are on this forum. I can honestly say that every time Germany takes it on the chin in any game I am happy.
    I always root for any team to smash them, and remind those POS that they may have titles, but they have no class.

    • I’m not sure if you were unlucky enough to meet german ppl in Germany or live with them for a long time. Germans are arrogant idiots + they are bad at winning and losing at the same time. German press was writing about Maradona and ppl say he is a disgrace to Argentina because of his behavior. The point is germans can’t understand the mentality I was crying like a little kid when messi scored same when Rojo scored. Ppl looked at me as if I’m crazy. Everyone in Germany wants Argentina to lose. It doesn’t matter how long you live in Germany but they always treat you like a foreign. Look how they want to crucify özil all the past glory is forgotten. Özil should resign from international duty for Germany but he should give an advice to all the players who are germans with foreign roots noone should play for Germany.let the germans play their own crap and go back to their roots which is only fighting without any culture. Ppl made so much fun of me here after the Croatia match but you know what? The day after I was on the street with Argentine Jersey because a real fan stays loyal to his team after a defeat indeed.

      • Very well said. At least 30 percent of German team are not even Germans, they are naturalized. I find that pathetic. I do not like to generalize about a country, but everything I see points to some very undesirable traits. A miserable people they are. I hope they suffer in Euro’s also.
        Maybe Jorgy Low can smell his own crotch and eat his own boogers in private. If you don’t believe me, go to YOUTUBE and you can see the video of him eating boogers during a match and smelling his own crotch.
        As far as you crying, I understand., I told my wife if I ever see Argentina lifting the World Cup trophy again I will cry like a baby. Those that don’t have any heart can not understand passion.

        • Passion it’s the perfect word. Germans are always pragmatic and cold hearted. It’s not only their fault the weather plays a huge role in people’s emotional state and personality. Sometimes I feel sorry for them.

      • Germans never liked us. not in football not in every other part generally.
        they are arrogant people and they believe they are superior people than us.
        i don t like Germans at all . for me is like same with English.

    • To san isidro.I liked what you said in your article.The germans were lucky in 1990 to win the wc and again in 2014 .In 2014 argentina played better than in their previous games in the 2014 wc and created more chances but unfortuantely argentina had a so called striker who could not score to save his own life,you guessed i am talking about higuain.I hope he does not play against france even if argentina are winning 10 nil,don’t let the JINX on the pitch.The only good thing germans are is making cars.Their cars are more attractive than their football.

      • Germans beat us in 1990 with referee. fake penalty and 2 red cards.
        how much more to steal in one game?
        in 2014 they were lucky true just don t forget again the penalty and red card to their goalkeeper that referee didn t give us again.

        Germans was always scums.

        • Maybe Jorgy Low can ask Angela Merkel for more immigrants with footballing skills. After all so much of their team are from different cultural background which tells you way more about the Germans footballing skills compared to the world.

          • in next world cup maybe they will take some Argentine and from Brasil players to their national team hahaha 🙂 🙂 🙂

            well said 🙂

        • But 2014 the referee helped them again even some Germany football experts said after the match Neuer was lucky to get away with what he did to higuain.

          • Yes exactly. you are right. i mention to my comment up and about red card with penalty that the referee didn t give to Neuer.

            he give offensive foul !!! he was close to send to hospital Higuain and that scum give offensive foul !!!

    • Shame on you!!!enrage for what? Lothar Matthaus is a world champion, one of the greatest players of his generation. You have the rights not to agree with his assessment but that doesn’t give you the rights to belittle the person or an entire country for that matter. How old are you you f*****g idiot. Germans people are great and they’ve opened their country for a lot of migrants or refugees from across the world. Btw I am a huge fan of Argentina but I can at least recognize that Germany is a great nation of football. They are 4 times world cup champion so instead of hating why don’t we work harder to be at their level. They deserve there world cup whether you like it or not. Don’t be a hater, we don’t need people like that…grow up

  53. Argentina and France both are astrologically favorite where Argentina has slight edge if Argentina beat France, is going to win world cup. As messi turned 31 now he will play best ever football in his career, Argentina winning🏆

  54. If we can pass this challenge, I believe we can go far. All favour France to win coz of our admittedly not so impressive performance in group stage. But I know with our quality and determination we can be superior than France. I hope France underestimates us and we surprise those who predicts us out. Vamos Argentina!

  55. We can play possession game. But we must be as slow as possible. Just like what we did to Belgium in 2014. I look forward to an early goal by Messi.

  56. We have a good chance of winning if we prevent the sloppy passes in our own half. If we gift the ball to Griezmann or Mbappe, we will concede.

    If we make it to the quarterfinal we will see Fazio, Ansaldi and LoCelso or Dybala due to suspensions.

  57. What is wrong with you people. Argentina played well against Iceland but they parked the bus. Sometimes its impossible to score when 10 people are in front of the net. In game against Croatia we had an off day i admit.
    But i am confident that When Sampaoli says he will show an Argentine football, we will see a great match. Possesion with lots of opportunity to score. You will see France all defending. We will control the game. but keep complaining. You guys also thought we would be out of world cup after we lost to croatia. but we made it to play offs. I will come back to all your complains when we won the worldcup.

  58. I don’t know why, but I have a good feeling about tomorrow’s game! I think we really have a chance against France!
    They barely beat Peru, while we dominated them completely!
    We need to dominate possession, and be ready for a counter when they have possession. Umtiti, Hermandez, Kante, they are not good handling pressure. We have ton he at out A Game!

    Armani
    Mercado-Fazio-Otamendi-Rojo
    Di Maria-Mascherano-Banega
    Messi-Aguero-Dybala

    Vamos Argentina!!!!

    And Suarez, we’ll meet you in the Quarterfinals! 😉
    Whom we will easily beat again, and head for the Semis!
    Vamos Argentina!
    🇦🇷🏆🇦🇷

  62. I recall watching Argentina beat France with coco basile

    Burdisso Ayala Milito Heinze
    Zanetti gago cambiasso
    Lucho

    Saviola Crespo

    Saying this I think the game tomorrow will be similar to Spain vs Argentina 6-1 (but different score )

    • If you meant we will win 6-1, it’s quite over confident. If you meant they will dominate us like the Spaniards did, that underestimates us. We are a better team now than in the match with Spain, and we have Messi this time. Carvajal and Alba were completely free to press but with Messi the French won’t be able to risk like that.

      The 2 friendly matches in 2007 and 2009 are great examples that team can learn from. We didn’t dominate nor be dominated. It was 50-50 but we were sharp in counter and fast in transition.

  63. Still alot of people in this site believes that sampaoli is or trainer and that messi is not our player and trainer. Ok plus this was completely a fake press conference completely trying to make france this other things. When the lineup tomorrow is known you will all understand what we will try to do

  64. Messi has been rumored as false 9…but probably Messi at right wing will be much better…as Lucas Hernandez is much more attacking defender will create more space for messi.. may be kante will mark messi too…that can bring a lot of space for others as pogba defensively not very good…should go with Aguero/ Higuain..

    • One thing we didn’t see is roaming positions of the attacking players. I’d like to see Higuain to swap position with Messi or Di Maria/Pavon to play on the right frank time to time. We need to shuffle to surprise their defense and open space.

  65. Whatever the lineup is, I want Argentina to play FAST and in Style.

    I want argentina to play like this:
    youtube.com/watch?v=lbLD3P6lXGs

    or even this:
    youtube.com/watch?v=87kyVExZMfY

    We are not a bad team. In fact, we are pretty good.
    We have been to all 3 major finals in the last few years and none of them were lost in normal time. No team dares to play completely open against us.

    What we need to do is to bring a proper balance of experience of seniors and enthusiasm of juniors.
    Along with the senior players we need to blend in 2-3 junior players like pavon, dybala, lo celso etc.
    (Play at least 2 of them.)

  68. Sampaoli is a pure idiot…….. His words before the game remind me of 0-4 loss to Germany in 2010. We will be destroyed by France…..

  69. He knows he can’t trust the defense so now he is talking about an offensive tactic. I think I go prey for not having too many errors. Actually what he says is true but what does he mean? Want to try to outscore them? I love to see Argentina playing possession football but we are not organized enough cause players didn’t have time to train well under sampaoli.

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