Argentina Champions League preview: Angel DI MARIA goes back to Old Trafford

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A big clash on Tuesday in the Champions League as Angel DI MARIA goes back to Old Trafford when PSG play Manchester United.

It wasn’t the best of spells at the club but United fans haven’t forgotten about Angel DI MARIA. What started off great quickly went sour and the Argentina man will look for redemption against his old club. With a total of 18 Argentine players remaining in the Champions League, here are the matches for the Round of 16 for this week.

Tuesday:
AS Roma (Diego PEROTTI, Federico FAZIO, Javier PASTORE) vs. FC Porto
Manchester United (Sergio ROMERO, Marcos ROJO) vs. PSG (Angel DI MARIA, Leandro PAREDES)

Wednesday:
Tottenham Hotspur (Erik LAMELA, Juan FOYTH, Paulo GAZZANIGA) vs. Borussia Dortmund (Leonardo BALERDI)
Ajax (Nicolas TAGLIAFICO, Lisandro MAGALLAN) vs. Real Madrid

The Argentine players left in the Champions League are:

AS Roma: Diego PEROTTI, Federico FAZIO, Javier PASTORE
Manchester United: Sergio ROMERO, Marcos ROJO
PSG: Angel DI MARIA, Leandro PAREDES
Tottenham Hotspur: Erik LAMELA, Juan FOYTH, Paulo GAZZANIGA
Borussia Dortmund: Leonardo BALERDI
Ajax: Nicolas TAGLIAFICO, Lisandro MAGALLAN
FC Barcelona: Lionel MESSI
Atletico Madrid: Angel CORREA
Juventus: Paulo DYBALA
Manchester City: Nicolas OTAMENDI, Sergio AGUERO

Federico FAZIO is the only regular starter for AS Roma while Javier PASTORE finds himself in and out of the starting eleven. Diego PEROTTI remains injured.

Manchester United have two Argentine players in Sergio ROMERO and Marcos ROJO. The goalkeeper is still the bench warmer behind starter David DE GEA while Marcos ROJO is finding games difficult to come by but did train with the rest of the team on Monday.

With several key players injured, Angel DI MARIA will look to step it up for PSG and he has re-gained his form this season, playing well and scoring two goals in the Champions League this year. He leads Ligue 1 with 8 assists. Leandro PAREDES was just signed in last month’s transfer window but has already made his debut and could feature on Tuesday’s clash.

Mauricio POCHETTINO has three Argentine representatives on his team. Pulo GAZZANIGA, who has played a few matches this season, is still the number two goalkeeper at the club. Erik LAMELA and Juan FOYTH both find themselves in and out of the team.

Borussia Dortmund signed Argentina U20 defender Leonardo BALERDI. Having played zero matches for Dortmund, we might not see him in the starting eleven yet.

Argentina left back Nicolas TAGLIAFICO is currently on three goals in this year’s Champions League and has made that left back position his. Meanwhile, newly signed defender Lisandro MAGALLAN hasn’t been doing well since joining Ajax.

As always, we will have highlights and reports following the conclusion of the matches.

66 Comments

  1. Di Maria created 3 chances himself today, more than any player on the pitch (even more than Pogba LoL)!

    Bagged two assists!

    He is one of the best wingers in the world on his day!
    Before I said no Di Maria… but he is showing again and again and again that he is too good to turn down!

    Maybe a formation such as
    Romero
    Saravia-Pezzella-Otamendi-Tagliafico
    Lo Celso-Paredes-Lanzini
    Di Maria-Messi-Aguero

    Could be used in the Copa America

    • Even the poor stat I would always take Otamendi,Di-Maria,Aguero and ofcourse Messi from old generation for Copa. Tournament like these a team always will need some experience. I don’t know if that is for Di-Maria himself or for our coach he can’t play like this in NT. Seeing him today was sublime. But whenever it is comes to NT he tries too much or dribble too much,poor decisions,Poor cross,shit corner kick. Performance like this I have no complain for him to start at copa. I like your line but don’t agree to start Romero. First team experience compulsory in club level to start in NT. It has to change for once in all. Otherthan For copa it is good lineup for copa in paper. But more likely Lanzini won’t be ready. For Lanzini it is a big IF

  2. Di Maria was himself last night: very disappointing, maybe the even most, by his bad choices and wrong timing until that beautiful corner and then this perfect crossing for Mbappe. He can play a shit match and make difference by few actions.

    • Shaky start, tons of booing from United fans, overall poor first half. Then beer throw+young push must have pissed him off and he had a great 2nd half.

    • Not saying the move to psg was wrong but the way I see it PAREDES need to work is socks off if he want to be a starter for this team and the way it look there’s no guarantee of him playing next to verrati because the Brazilian guy bring something different which PAREDES doesn’t have
      What do you guys think ?

      • Ofcourse paredes is not guaranteed a spot and ofcourse he’ll have to work his butt off to get a starting berth but i believe in the kid’s talent and I think he’ll become an important player for the team.

        • I’m not saying I don’t believe in his talent he has plenty of talent but why always go somewhere where you might not develop properly or getting playing time.. the way I see it that French guy will have to leave for him to get a chance to prove himself

          • Yeah …how many times marquinhos won ball for psg today…..Nd veratti’s dictating play was world class….
            It’s good for paredes because competition will make him better player…..he isn’t a type of guy who will love to be benched

        • Depends, I would take out Dani Alves or Draxler to put him with Verratti and Marquinhos. Remember Verratti is very fragile and play around 6 months per season, Paredes will have his playing time. He just joined and it’s risky to put him in a critical game like this one.

  3. Dimaria is excellent form and fired under Tuchel this season, parades destroyed his career like pastore joining PSG, without Neymar PSG played much better

  4. Choripan
    my friend hello.
    i read your post about what i wrote yesterday and everything is ok.
    we make clear each other and everything is ok.
    i understand you.

    Ebo my friend.
    i will answer here in your question yesterday.
    my criteria about call ups in national team team is this.
    1. i choose what i want to play. i create a plan how i want to play.
    2. after i do the 1 i start watch and test all the players that i believe can fit in the way i want to play.
    i find and i use in end those players that perform to my system better.
    despite which club the player playing or how “glamorous” is his name.

    my target is to create a team that playing something specific. create one team with ID.

    to don t make you tired with long writing my friend 🙂 🙂 🙂
    what Sampaoli did in last world cup ?
    ha 🙂 EXACTLY THE OPPOSITE 🙂 🙂 🙂

  5. U just don’t know what u will get from di maria these days…..but he has always been a good performer in the UCL….
    Looking forward to his visit to old trafford

    • i think thats that the problem and most opposers see that. I’ll get ridiculed but I’d still take el fideo on team of 23, think he still has that magic left.

  6. Tactical analysis of Lisandro Martinez:

    totalfootballanalysis.com/player-analysis/lisandro-martinez-superliga-defensa-y-justicia-tactical-analysis-statistics

    • His Defensa y Justicia is on top of Superliga now, along with Racing. He and Barboza are best passers among defenders while Beccacece belives his boys has no limits and may fight after title.
      I’m not sure still about position of Lisandro Martinez. With his passing he could try CM, deep lying playmaker or so.

      • i dont see Barboza as a very good passer, irregular, try a lot but miss a lot too, rather Lucas Martinez Quarta, his long passing neirly as good as Lisandro Martinez long passing

      • Barboza reminds me of Garay, great reading of the game and leader on the pitch, as for his passing well it’s nothing special (not bad by any means) but Licha martinez is the passer amongst the 2, this is what makes this pair so potent, they each bring something to the table and complete each other.
        If the barboza-martinez pair continue to play like this till the end of the season then I really think should both go to copa with Barboza being a CB backup for pezzella or Otamendi and licha being a backup for tagliafico.

  7. In future we may see that Racing will be producing young talents like velez, estudiantes, san lorenzo because of the ground work Diego Milito is doing in the club. The downside is that they are also sending scouts to all over south america which may cause an increase of foreigners in that club.

  8. Rumored PSG Line Up for today’s game in a 4-2-3-1

    Yahoo Sport France claim PSG will start with this team at Old Trafford: Buffon; Kehrer, T. Silva, Kimpembe, Bernat; Verratti, Marquinhos; D. Alves, Draxler, Di Maria; Mbappé.

    If true, Paredes is deemed not good enough to play at Old Trafford.
    He’ll have three weeks to prove to Tuchel he should start at the home fixture against United.

    • PLEEEEEASE GTFO of boring JUVE (and a team that is built for CR7). Juve just isn’t a team to get the best out of Dybala. Also Spain is way better than Italy for players like Dybala to develop. This transfer cant happen soon enough. Hope Icardi and Martinez follow next!

      • Messi and Dybala start together, and don’t click. They are not compatible.
        Ronaldo and Dybala start together, and don’t click. They also are not compatible.

        Yet when Dybala can’t play with Messi, it’s Messi’s fault?

        When will we realize that Dybala is good, but he’s not at the level of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc.
        He shines, or shined (past tense) in Italy, but in Europe he has yet to make a name for himself.

        The best 3 players in the world are
        1. Messi
        2. Ronaldo
        3. Neymar
        That is not up for debate.

        I guarantee you if Dybala went to PSG, him and Neymar wouldn’t click either. They also wouldn’t be compatible.

        Dybala is a big fish in a lake, but disappears when he enters an ocean full with sharks.

        • Few clarifying points mr straw man. lol

          > Yet when Dybala can’t play with Messi, it’s Messi’s fault?

          No one blames Messi for chemistry issues.

          > he’s not at the level of Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, etc.

          Everyone knows that. I did not claim Dybala is top 3.

          > He shines, or shined (past tense) in Italy, but in Europe he has yet to make a name for himself.

          is that why his transfer prices is a crazy 100M+. How can you say with a straight face he has yet to make a name for himself?

          > I guarantee you if Dybala went to PSG, him and Neymar wouldn’t click either. They also wouldn’t be compatible.

          Pure conjecture, my man.

          > Dybala is a big fish in a lake, but disappears when he enters an ocean full with sharks.

          I guess a shining example of disappearing is when he destroyed Barca in the CL.

          2018/2019 – 10 Goals 4 Assists
          2017/2018 – 24 Goals 7 Assists
          2016/2017 – 21 Goals 7 Assists
          2015/2016 – 22 Goals 9 Assists
          2014/2015 – 14 Goals 8 Assists

          This years he’s finally dropped off a bit but he’s been fairly consistent over the past 5 seasons. Juve fans love him and they praise him as Juve best player over the last few years. Also, i’m not sure if you’re comparing Dybala to Messi or Ronaldo stats, but these stats are anything but “big fish in small pond”. Certainly better than most attackers.

          Now with Messi and Dybala chemistry issues were during a really fucked up period of chaos. If given enough practice and the right coach, they are both dynamic enough to learn to play with each other. Thats what i keep telling myself at least :)…or it may simply not work, time will tell.

    • If true then he may be used as Benzema’s replacement in the half 9 role, which I think it’s his best position. Its actually good he has Vinicius and Asensio around. Could be a nice attack.

  9. Hello again Friends. I want to begin by stating that I really love this Argentine Di Maria, he like his country, he plays with his all ability and he even able by the way. He must be in starting eleven in copa america.

    • Matias Zaracho and Lucas Robertone are the same type of players as Palacios. I really like Lucas Robertone from Velez. CM, box to box. Ddon’t think he is inferior to Palacios. Maybe even more playmaking abilities. Recently best player of Velez except Vargas. Both were superb in last match too. Robertone got red though. Scaloni is watching Velez regularly for Vargas, Gimenez, Dominguez. Robertone can’t escape his detection.

      • Robertone got more goals this season but I still think Palacios got little more edge than robertone as CM. I like that Palacios can recover and move the ball to forward quickly either by one-touch play or using through balls. It is true that he had dip in form recently, just when he is returning to form he got injured.

    • The injury is reported to be on his right fibula so indeed this could put Copa in jeopardy. Most of the focus currently is on the front men but I believe this is bigger news. Why?

      Scaloni’s style in defense is essentially outnumbering, man-marking, closing down and swarming out the opposition midfield center and leaving them only the outside channels to advance, while in offense moving the ball directly past the lines either aerially or along the ground with straight passing. I was (100%) certain that LoCelso and (75% certain) Parades were ideal for that. In a healthy world I thought Battaglia (for a slightly defensive balance), or Palacios (for a slightly offensive balance) were the ideal third midfielder in this system. With both their injuries this is now lost. We saw glimpses of Pereyra and Lamela in this role but I am not convinced there completely. I thus expect a call up for Nico Dominguez now to see if he can fit this structure.

  10. I like very much Pochettino’s style with high pressing, fast transition and players able to cover different positions like winger can cut in, box to box can play as 2nd striker and the 9 can drop down as playmaker. But I would have replace either Eriksen or Sissoko by Lamela. It’s a bit too conservative to play always with 4 midfielders. Just surprised that even after Kane’s injury he wasn’t used that much. Is he really finished? Such a waste. Foyth is more a long term stuff for Pochettino. It’s clear that this kid has something to become a great stopper. I think next year he will start with Sanchez-Foyth.

    • Mate lamela isn’t good enough
      Pochettino tried to improve him
      But reality is that he is not what
      Some of us think of believe that
      He is very good but he is not
      Argentina shouldn’t even considering
      Player like him.

      • Lol it’s no secret that I’m a Lamela fan. Love his playmaking and tenacious defending / pressing. Somewhat of rare breed but lacks consistency and injury prone. Spurs fans love him btw. For the NT, who would you pick ahead in midfield?

        • My friend let me tell you please
          After world cup in 2002
          Argentina NT needed new midfielder
          Because Diego simeone and almayda were getting old and Juan
          Veron were regular getting injury
          So Marcelo bielse has to find
          A midfielders and has to look
          Argentina youth and you know
          Who he found young boy call
          Javier mascherano who was playing
          In river plate reserve. He made
          Argentina debute before his club
          And carry on and become the pillar
          Of Nt .
          My point is this in Argentina
          We can find very good young
          Players who can develop to world class all we need to give those chance instead we stack same
          Names . I watched under 20s
          I find some good young players
          Likes de la Vega and almada
          I know you guys will call me crazy
          But if I was scaloni I will give them chance
          One of those players the both have
          Unbelievable ability to playmaking
          Another I will give him more
          Chance is Vargas what seen him
          He is another good prospect a long
          His teammate Dominguez.
          We need to take risky instead
          Keep taking the safe way .

          • Vargas had another impressive game last week. 3 goals, 3 assists, 3 MOTM in last 6 games.

            CM Lucas Robertone of Velez is also worth attention.

  11. I’m not a Brazilian fan, let me make that clear, but this game loses a bit of it’s edge without PSG’s #10 Neymar playing.
    We all know Mbappe is overrated as ever and will be invisible this match.
    This game will still be very good and I’ll still watch it, but overall it loses a bit of excitement without Neymar.

    It’s the same as if Barcelona were to play Lyon without Messi, or Juventus against Atletico without Ronaldo, etc.

    Again, that’s just IMO

    • Come on man, Mbappe is not overrated. I bet this kid will beat all the records in the next decade. Without talking about his talent, for his contribution to Sala’s body recovery, he has all my respect.

      • I’ll echo @canadienroyal and say come on che, he’s not overrated at all! Id love to have guy as young and as talented as him play for us. He just turned 20 for goodness sake. Of all the youngsters (dembelee too), hes on track to becoming the best.

        • Yeah Choripan, a fast player half striker half winger is what we need currently in our NT. France is lucky to have them in this generation. Dembele may be even more talented but Mbappe is such a warrior.

    • @Dontbethatguy
      The brazilian fan
      I hope you have seen the match today, do you still think Mbappe is overrated?
      LoL
      I’m tired watching one after another moronic comment from you…
      Btw you are good as Joker!!! 😂😂😂

  12. “Meanwhile, newly signed defender Lisandro MAGALLAN hasn’t been doing well since joining Ajax”.

    Not surprised at all. A few people here were puzzled by Ajax’s interest in Magallan. There are far more interesting and capable central defenders in Primera than Magallan, some of whom are even younger, but Ajax chose him somehow.

      • This is like some Europeans scouts are not aware the best talents currently are not in Boca or River but Velez, Defensa, Talleres, San Lorenzo.

        • Bullshit: Maximiliano Romero, Macallister, Caseres, Ascacibar, Pussetto etc, De la Vega and Thiago Almada already wanted, big danger is the small team mentality, player who can only perform in smaller clubs, Alexander Barboza period is perfect example, great in Defensa but failed in River, such a player will never be scouted into Europe before he doesnt show something in bigger argentine clubs

        • @gonzalo-pity-martinez

          League needs to change a few things asap.

          First is your concern… scouting and connections to big league. Players should be sold for way more money. its asinine how low some of these transfer are.

          Second is the production. The quality of the TV broadcast is often so bad. The camera angles are poor, colors are bland, etc all of which are off putting and only locals or fans will tune in. Its an interesting difference between the EPL and La Liga. There was interesting article put out recently that highlighted that as a reason for poor viewing of la liga vs epl. production is just so much better. They even have recorders catching the sound when the ball hits the net making it seem like you’re there. Such a rich and full experience. I know it takes money but hey if only they sold players for more money then voila..

        • btw what happened with Benfica argentines? Exactly what i’ve predicted, so i wait your excuses. Lema will never play in that team, Conti maybe, if the super talented Dias will go in next season, Cervi and Salvio are ordinary players, nowhere near NT-level, they were always average in Benfica too, and Benfica shine without them…(Joao Felix is very special player, his worth is over 50 millions already)…and Facundo Ferreyra…

  13. Romero and Rojo won’t play. I hope Di Maria kills it today. Paredes may not start either

    I’d be surprised if the Tottenham trio get any game time. Looking forward to see how Tagliafico holds up agains a superior squad.

    • Yeah, will be an exciting game Manchester United-PSG. If PSG plays in counter attack, with lot of space, Di Maria could make the difference. Just checked on psg site, seems that Verratti will come back in time, so Paredes on the bench. Tagliafico will have Sancho on his side. I also want to see if he can handle the young guy.

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