Alejandro Papu Gomez scores as Argentina seal Copa America knockout place

By
Roy Nemer
-
69

Alejandro Papu Gomez scored for Argentina in their 1-0 win vs. Paraguay.

Argentina are qualified to the knockout round of the Copa America following the 1-0 win and are now unbeaten in 16 matches. Lionel Messi with a lovely dribble and pass in to Di Maria as he played a great through ball in to Papu Gomez who dinked the ball over the goalkeeper for the 1-0 lead.

A free kick by Messi went just wide as the team saw less of the ball. It looked as if Argentina had scored a second, an own goal but the goal would be overturned for offside. A shot by Di Maria had Messi initially offside as the shot was saved by the goalkeeper. The ball would land to Papu Gomez who would cross it in for the own goal but it would be ruled off.

Lionel Scaloni made a substitution early in the second half as Joaquin Correa was brought on for Sergio Aguero. It must be said that Aguero was sluggish when on the ball and had several poor passes.

It was goal scorer Papu Gomez who was substituted next as Rodrigo De Paul was brought on to bring more stability to the midfield. Scaloni would make two more substitutions as Angel Correa was brought on for Angel Di Maria and Nicolas Dominguez for Leandro Paredes.

The team will not be playing midweek as they have a rest and will play Bolivia next Monday.

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69 Comments

  1. Basualdo, who was part of Argentina team winning Copa in 1991, uttered something which resonates with what I think of the current team. He doesn’t see that hunger in the Argentine squad, saying that he does not perceive a hunger in someone like Lautaro Martínez to score goals or become a significant factor. How could Kun miss such an opportunity? It reminded me of the opportunity that Higuain threw away against Germany in 2014. Today even Messi looked so rusty against a weak side. If this is our performance against a team like Praguay, what would we do against hungrier teams like Brazil? After scoring the goal, where was Pappu Gomez? On countless occasions, Argentines, including the GOAT, lost their ball to the opponent. Romero, who is supposed to be the discovery of the season, was very close to making disastrous faux pas. Paredes again came up with an outrageous tackle. Other than Di Maria nobody seemed to be in his groove today. Basualdo further adds, “Brazil is more than two steps above us. They are hungry; ours are not. I do not see a Lautaro Martínez hungry to score goals; Kun went to accompany Messi.” The team should go out without Messi against Bolivia and prove that they are worthy of the albiceleste.

  2. In 2014 WC lavezzis substitution cost us Major trophy. and in prev WC Requelmis sub by pekerman cost us And in Maradona’s coaching Veron & Gutirus exclusion cost us again against Ger. Major trophies lost bcz of this shit substitutions & unlucky finishings..In one Copa man in foM D Maria’s injury cost us and in another Copa After win against Colom in penalties Coach ignored man in foam Tevez against Chili cost us again. what a disastrous team ..

  3. Arg lacks extraordinary talented L& R wingers.Kun and Paredes not looking great today. Kun looks always lazy in tackling and running..That’s his main problem. And it is better for Paredes to concentrate in one job..He is a wonderful passer.

    • Nothing wonderful. He is being carried by Veratti in PSG.
      He is being in the starting 11 as Poch is the manager. Once, Poch gets sacked u would see him rotting in the bench.

      • verrati was injured for more than half a season. how can he carry Paredes then? Your statements lack the facts they are just biased opinions

  4. Credit to Scaloni again . Unbeaten in 16 matches. very good record for scaloni. He is a genius coach in rotating his players . Our previous coaches failed in rotating and substituting players in crucial times. Scaloni is far different from others..welldone. He knows how to develope his team in a tournament.Points are imp. . Team needs win and point not a beautiful football..Scaloni doing
    exactly whatt his country wants..

  5. Yesterdays game showed, that we need to stick to the 433 formation… The main problem is the injury of our Players…
    Because I think otherwise our Formation would be set.

    ——————-Emi——————-
    ———Romero——–Otamendi——
    Molina—————————–Acuna
    —————–Guido——————-
    De Paul————————-Lo Celso

    ——–Messi————-Nico———–
    —————-Lautaro——————

    Subs will be Papu, Aguero, Palacios, Di Maria, Correa and I still think we need Dybala.

    • I like this line up…I have some changes like put Licha instead of Otamendi and after copa I want to see Angileri as a left back for few minutes. I think Scaloni should keep same team for few matches bcs lack of chemistry our players did not give proper effort.

  7. Today Messi equalized Mascherano’s caps for Argentina, so next game he will surpass Mascherano. 147 for a national team is a LOT of caps for both players… impressive. Also tomorrow (technically today in Argentina and asia at the time of writing) will be 35 years since the hand of god and goal of the century from Maradona. Not to mention we completed 1000 games against Uruguay recently. A lot of history going on

    • hope this time our beloved team will win this copa title. Messi at least deserve one NT Title beside his name and all the players should be keep error less effort for MESSI.

  8. People need to really stop their crying. We played three of the most difficult teams in our group and came away never feeling threatened.

    Stop bringing up Buendia. He is not here. No point of bringing him up.

    Give Scaloni credit for introducing a gem in Molina. He’s almost got the defense down.

    Once the attack is sorted out, we are going to be very difficult to beat. We are already but once the offense gets going, we will no doubt contend for the World Cup.

    the negativity is nothing but a blight on this blog. Knock it off.

    • What a sensible reply bro. Thanks. People need to understand its a process. I dont get why nobody is talking about clean sheets in last 2 games. Uruguay or Paraguay, I never believed either could score against us. Yeah it is not pretty but wins are wins. France didnt attack Germany for all of 90 minutes, even though they could. They scored and defended for rest of the game.

      We are top of the group. Di Maria is awesome. Messi should be rested for next game so hes fit for knockout phase.

  9. ————-An article————
    Marca Claro relayed the comments made by Jose Basualdo, who stated that he feels terrible for Lionel Mess for having Scaloni as the manager for La Albiceleste. The former player went on to say the Scaloni manages like he’s coaching a group of U-20 players.

    “We enter into a peace in which everyone is asking if they play well or not, and they do not wonder if we are going to win something or not. Let Scaloni say that he wants to win the Copa América. Then we see what happens. It is believed that he is in the sub 20,” Basualdo said.

    “Argentina has to play to win something. I’m sorry for Messi because it seems the only one who wants to win things. The others are calm because the technician is quiet. You start watching the European Championships, and you think, does Argentina’s to play Germany or France?”

    “Gallardo has to be the coach of the National Team. We have to look for a productive line of play. Argentina has to look for a project idea, decide where we are going, and analyze the technicians who agree with that project. Gareca, Gallardo, those who are now at the moment. It happens that there is a lot of politics,” Basualdo said.

    Finally, Basualdo stated that Brazil is levels above Argentina because the desire that he sees in the players.

    In contrast, he doesn’t see that hunger on the Argentine squad, saying that he does not perceive that hunger from someone like Lautaro Martínez to score goals or become a significant factor.

    “Brazil is more than two steps above us. They are hungry; ours are not. I do not see a Lautaro Martínez hungry to score goals; Kun went to accompany Messi,” Basualdo said.

    “I’m not fond of Scaloni at all. He arrives without experience. It’s not the pig’s fault but the one who feeds him. He doesn’t know how to make a change in how the players get up that day.”

    I don’t know who this guy is, have never heard about him. Quite new to me but the moment I saw he talked about a project with directions, I thought i should better give alook to it.

    And by the way he didn’t say anything wrong. He was practical. But anyways we should respect the choices made.

      • It’s not necessary to be a great manager to give an advice like neutrals btw he is right. Only a blind guy can’t see it . We got dominated by Paraguay they didn’t score 2-3 goals because they don’t have cynical player in front. Brazilians would be licking their lips.

        • Nonsense. A solid defense can shutout a great attacking side. It wasn’t a great showing going forward, particularly in the second half but to say a better offensive team will have a field-day is not correct either. We will continue to adjust. Our attack will become more fluid sooner than later.

          This negativity needs to stop now. The team fought like warriors tonight. Paraguay never had a single threatening chance. This is the second game in a row. Does Uruguay have cynical players upfront? Yes? What did they show? Nothing.

          • Uruguay is still struggling to score they could score against chile today it was Vidal’s own goal.
            But what happened against Colombia and 2 matches against chile we can’t be lucky enough every time.

  10. this match showed how badly this team misses a creative player like buendia…this is his stats compared to KDB, salah, mahrez, and grealish

    Most Assists Most Chances Created per 90 Most Open PlayChances
    Kevin De Bruyne: 16 Kevin De Bruyne: 4.01 Kevin De Bruyne: 72
    Trent Alexander: 12 Emiliano Buendia: 3.26 Jack Grealish: 57
    Riyad Mahrez: 8 Pascal Gross: 3.14 Emiliano Buendia: 50
    Emiliano Buendia: 7 Riyad Mahrez: 2.99 Mohamed Salah: 42

  11. No games until next Monday. Let’s hope and believe that we’ll grow as the tournament progresses. An ugly win is still fine as long as we win everything. That’s the most important thing in any tournament.

    Ciaoo amigos🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

  12. Everyone were bashing lautaro and they were critical about nico too.. See how much nico and locelso are so much important in the forward play.. Lautaro is needed in the team especially his work rate in the up front .. Yes his finishing is not that good at the moment but see the condition of aguero.. Aguero is not fit for international games right now.. We need nico Gonzalez badly.. We are not tested that much
    Maybe tough games will bring the best out of the team.. Otherwise they seems to be so much happy with their one goal lead.. Argentina should improve.. Vamos Argentina

    Reply

    • Tbh Nico and lo celso hasn’t been missed today. Papu was better than Nico and Di Maria has done the creative job of lo celso. Lautaro is utter shit . Paredes and Tagliafico should not start again.

  13. Argentina are a much better team with Lo Celso playing. And De Paul too. Peredes cannot be left to link up the back with the final third. He is the king of the back pass. That’s why I miss Mascherano so much. That guy would get the ball back and link up with the attack. THat is what was missing today

    • Mascherano was a excellent dm.. When it comes to defense he was as brilliant as you can get.. But attack wise he was null too.. Don’t lie that he would link up with attacking play.. He was also someone who would provide back passes and side passes only.. Paredes is caught up in the position I think.. He is not that good dm.. And he is trying to be dm which restrict his attacking skills.. Locelso nico and lautaro is required to make the team fluid.. Vamos Argentina

      • I was not saying Masche was a #10. I was saying he was a DM that would also play the ball forward. Too often Peredes gets the ball and goes backwards. I vividly remember Masche picking out teammates up front.

        Again, not saying Masche was Riquelme. Just saying that he was a DM that actually looked to push the ball forward

        • Once I saw some skills of ascacibar.. He was like kante… But then his team got relegated in Bundesliga and he too disappeared.. Paredes is someone who tries his best to be dm but he does not have that skill in him.. locelso has much better ball recovering skills.. Guido is not that special too.. But I would start with the same team that played against Uruguay.. We miss goal scoring striker at the moment.. Vamos Argentina

  14. The team was sublime in defense especially Molina was out standing other Romero, Pezzalla and Tagliafiko was also ok….
    In mid field parades, Gueodo also ok
    But there is a gap between kun and attacking mid….
    There is a gap of linking between the number 9 and rest of the team…
    Though papu was the scorer than he have failed to link up between number 9 and midfield…
    Here I think manager should do work…
    Buindia would be a good option here though we ha lo selso available in the next match…
    The goal was keeper obviously good
    Really the team improved a lot defensively after 2018 world cup..

  15. Better to score one goal to win a match than to score three and lose like the one against France. Keyboard coaches please stop crying. Each match is a different strategy. You can’t know what Scaloni thinks.

  17. Scaloni is a retard. I have never seen a more class less Argentine footballer than Aguero. He was unfit and completely useless in 2014, denying us the edge. He should have been left out of that WC. He must either have been dropped or Aguero should have had the decency and retired like Huguain. Both didn’t happen and here he is when he is not even good enough for his club but shamelessly wears the NT shirt and once again (like 90% of his NT matches) played like son of a w****.
    In the case of Di Maria, you have to take into account, that his entire NT career, he has played out of position, no thanks to Messi. The only match he got a chance to play in his natural position, he destroyed Germany.
    Therefore he too should never be considered for the NT, given he will continue to be played out of Position.
    I am not saying they shouldn’t be playing becos of their age rather that they have been given a million chances and they haven’t made it count.
    Same goes for Otamendi.
    Players should be chosen to represent the NT on merit, and nobody should be put in a comfort zone. Tagliafico, WTF. Who the fuck is monitoring his performances in the NT. Most of the mediocre teams in the Euro tournaments have better LB’s than him. Continual mediocrity from Tag.
    Parades falls in the same above category.
    Scaloni got his role because he is a cousin of an influential person within the AFA, and I have never seen a more incompetent, clueless guy than this piece of garbage. The rest of the coaching staff are a bunch of amateurs.

    River Plate have rejected Ajax’s approach for Julian Alvarez.

  18. Garbage football on all 3 lines. Aguero sucked, and I have to say this is a very very pedestrian team. This team is in transition as their best players are very old and there is no clear superstars as of yet coming up.

  19. IMO…our attacking fluidity and team balance has been worsen in this match.
    Against Chile and Uruguay..I can understand..but against Paraguay too..? Against which team in this Conmebol..we can win 2+ goals..?
    Only against Bolivia..? Or even that’s not going to happen..?

  20. We won and this will release lot of pressure. Now we have plenty of time to recover. This is important we played 5 games back to back. Even Messi, Romero, Emi etc can take a day off against Bolivia.
    Di Maria was outstanding. Good job by Monila. Pappu’s goal was stylish.
    Still i would suggest we should stick to 4-3-3 with Messi, Lautaro,Nico ; Lo Celso,Gaudio, De Paul; Acuna, Ottamandi,Romero, Monila ; Emi.

    Hopefully Licha will get a chance n it will the perfect time for him to prove his capability.

    • Like it or not, we need Di Maria. All the forwards has been out of form and have no attacking threat outside Messi if Di Maria isnt there. His passes & long range could be vital.

      Molina was outstanding, but Tagli was a walking corpse like Biglia back then.

      • molina got burnt like 15 times to the point where they had to help him double team the guy he was marking. tagli was barely ever tested on his side. what game were u watching?

        • I watched a different game than you then, because I was very impressed by Molina. He was marking the moat dangerous player on the field besides Messi. Paraguays left winger is a wickedly fast and slick player, he is an excellent test and Mollina for the most part nutraliced him and won many key tackles against him.

          Taglafico hot megger 2 times in 20min. He was the weaker full back vs weaker players.

      • Messi the only threat..! That’s okay.
        But..when did he score a goal for Argentina in open play? He’s being selfish and doesn’t trust his teammates.

      • Yes, True Di Maria was good. We cannot expect the same performance from him everyday. He can be a good substitute. About Monila, he’s now the best LB we have, n we don’t have an other other option. Definitely better than Montial.
        My concerns are in two positions 1) Ottamandi 2) L.Martinez.
        If someone can challenge that position n win. That will be amazing. My bet is on Licha n Aguero. Aguero was very poor today thereforeet L.Martinez continues atleat he has some work rate.

      • Yes Molina has been getting better and better in every game he has played so i think he has deserved his spot no doubt about it and i just wish that he Still keep’s on developping even more and more!

    • Yes I can not believe we are still changing formations and I just don’t understand how playing a double pivot was even in consideration. A double pivot for me is a big no no and I don’t know why we went there. 4-3-3 until our strikers are fitter and better and then hopefully he will try a 4-3-1-2

    • He should remember…why he started to use 433 from starting instead of double pivot. Double pivot against Paraguay is a joke…I believe it happened only because… Scaloni can’t drop Guido…and don’t want to drop Paredes.

      • Exactly. Paredes remains an untouchable player and the formation has to be changed to accommodate him even though it destroys the balance. Hope Scaloni realizes this.

  22. This looks like Sabella’s team WITHOUT the counter attacking ability!

    Scolani’s team has been unbeaten in last 20 games, but its a torturous 20 games to be exact.

    Emi never really gets threatened but midfield has always been overrun by opponents in past 5 games in second half. Same ongoing pattern.

    Acuna should be starting at KO stage, Tagli offers nothing just like Biglia back then. Sideways passing, cant dribble, no crosses , not fast either.

  23. Scaloni is living on the edges and it’s too dangerous.

    I wonder what will happen once we face Brazil in the knockout stages, containing Neymar is no easy but the possibility of doing it is neither less. Still, it feels like we’re in a middle of a field full of landmines at night. We’re just treading foreword with little to no awareness.

    Dangerous times. Scaloni should force some crucial changes.

  24. Well this is “scaloni-ball” at its worse. I was happy how we defended against Uruguay and conceded zero shots on goal, but Paraguay is not the caliber of opposition to be going defensive against (although we failed to beat them before for several). Obviously having six changes from the last game played a part in how we played. I hope that now people that recommend getting rid of De Paul or radically changing the midfield for no reason realize just how crucial BALANCE is.

    The midfield could not hold up the ball and Paraguay were designed to crowd those who had possession and rob them easily. Although there were no real saves (again) for Martinez to make it still felt very uneasy with Paraguay out possessing us. Although I must say, while I don’t like that we had to defend, defend we did and we did it well. I am not a big fan of Paredes and Guido together.

    Molina: He actually defended quite well especially in the second half. He is by no means rock solid and got dribbled past twice but still a very commendable performance and when we did play with the ball he also helps in attack.
    Romero: Once again proving he is our best defender and should be a starter every single game.
    Messi: NEEDS a break. I do not remember a worse performance from him in a while. Losing the ball constantly and not sharp at all, although it does give some perspective that even in a bad performance for him that he still was one of the best players and played a major role in the goal.
    Di Maria: He really surprised me because I was expecting another Chile-esque performance. The best player on the field for me. Judging from the bandage and injury on his nose one could say this is the first time that the sense actually got knocked into someone haha. Great pass for Gomez and great positioning from him.
    Tagliafico: This game also proves Tagliafico should not be a starter because I just can not believe that he got nutmegged like that. Acuna is looking a lot more solid now.
    Pezzella: was alright but I can not for the life of me understand how he is above Licha in the pecking order.
    Kun: looked very rusty but hope some game time will help him for the KO’s.

    We now have a week to get back in shape and we have all been asking for “goleadas” every game for a while, and as soon as we score a goal we defend. We under NO circumstances should be doing this against Bolivia especially since it is not in the altitude. I don’t care if it is a whole week Messi needs to rest. I am starting to lose some faith though and I found this game very disappointing and disheartening to watch. I have said this before, we have the talent to win this thing but something is not clicking. Hey, at least we have two clean sheets, 3 points, and are leading our group for some encouragement.

  25. I have to assume THIS is how Scaloni wants them to play, lack of creativity, experience, tactics….etc call it whatever you like but this is how things are with this coach.
    NOW, remember how things were in 2014 WC, they struggled to score and Messi came to the rescue and then it was 1-zero games until the Dutch that went to PKs……..they dominated with defense.

    I am not defending Scaloni, BUT look at it this way, ARG has NOT lost a game since that BS loss to Brazil in COPA, for somebody who looks like he walked off the street to coach one of the biggest teams in history and Messi……he’s doing ok.
    I would love to get a proper coach to lead this team and get the most of them but its not up to me or you and harping on it is not going to get us anywhere.

  26. Don’t blame the defence for singled out individual mistakes. If you wanna point finger to somebody, do it to pezzella. He was horrendous today. He literally left Romero exposed and was absolutely disastrous with his passing. I don’t know what to say but I hate blaming players, it’s time for scaloni to release licha.

    There’s no better time than this. Just like lautaro was released last year he should unleash licha.

  28. Some day the 10th minute goal will not come. Someday the opponent will score first. Someday we may have to chase the game. We can only hope that that day is after this tournament is over.

  29. I may comment in detail later. If I feel like. But for now I will say this – if you think this is defensive masterclass you are mistaken. This is desperate defending with poor skills on the ball.

    • Yes the defensive game against Uruguay was an example of good defending this game we did get the job done but it felt much more uneasy

      • Keep calm and don’t raise your blood pressure my fellow supporters.. I know it isn’t pretty to watch but we must have hope and we must and will support Argentina.. no matter who is coaching or who is playing.. We support the albicilestes 100%..

  30. Can somebody explain, why we ‘switched off ’ after first half?! In second half we cant even manage 6 passes in one go. What kind of tactics is this? I know, we won but can we win against bigger rivals with such tactics? Important 3 points plus clean sheet but personally i m not happy of this kind of play.

  31. I think they are playing fantastic as a team…….. can anyone tell why they relax and are kind of laid back after taking one goal lead? It will cost them in the long run….. up until finding that one goal they play excellent…. and if they play like that probably they are WC contenders.

    • Everyone were bashing lautaro and they were critical about nico too.. See how much nico and locelso are so much important in the forward play.. Lautaro is needed in the team especially his work rate in the up front .. Yes his finishing is not that good at the moment but see the condition of aguero.. Aguero is not fit for international games right now.. We need nico Gonzalez badly.. We are not tested that much
      Maybe tough games will bring the best out of the team.. Otherwise they seems to be so much happy with their one goal lead.. Argentina should improve.. Vamos Argentina

      Reply

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