Argentine Champions League Preview, Matchday 1: Lionel Messi makes PSG debut

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Tuesday and Wednesday see the start of the 2021-2022 Champions League and there are 24 Argentine players participating in the tournament this season.

Sevilla have the most Argentine players in their team with five of them, three of which won the Copa America with Argentina. And it’s Sevilla that play the first match of the Champions League when they host RB Salzburg with Nicolas Capaldo.

Lionel Messi will make his Champions League debut with his new club PSG when he, along with Angel Di Maria, Leandro Paredes and Mauro Icardi travel to Belgium for their match. Here are the Argentine players taking part in the Champions League.

Atletico Madrid: Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Correa
Villarreal: Juan Foyth, Geronimo Rulli
Inter: Lautaro Martinez, Joaquin Correa
PSG: Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Leandro Paredes, Mauro Icardi
FC Barcelona: Sergio Aguero
Juventus: Paulo Dybala
Sevilla: Lucas Ocampos, Erik Lamela, Marcos Acuña, Papu Gomez, Gonzalo Montiel
FC Porto: Agustín Marchesín
Ajax: Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico
Atalanta: Juan Musso, Jose Luis Palomino
Benfica: Nicolas Otamendi
RB Salzburg: Nicolas Capaldo

In addition to the players, Diego Simeone manages Atletico Madrid while Mauricio Pochettino has the star studded PSG team. Here are the matches for this week involving Argentine players:

Sevilla (Lucas Ocampos, Erik Lamela, Marcos Acuña, Papu Gomez, Gonzalo Montiel) vs. RB Salzburg (Nicolas Capaldo)

Villarreal (Juan Foyth, Geronimo Rulli) vs. Atalanta (Juan Musso, Jose Luis Palomino)

Malmo vs. Juventus (Paulo Dybala)

FC Barcelona (Sergio Aguero) vs. Bayern Munich

Dynamo Kyiv vs. Benfica (Nicolas Otamendi)

Wednesday:

Inter (Lautaro Martinez, Joaquin Correa) vs. Real Madrid

Atletico Madrid (Rodrigo De Paul, Angel Correa) vs. FC Porto (Agustín Marchesín)

Club Brugge vs. PSG (Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria, Leandro Paredes, Mauro Icardi)

Sporting vs. Ajax (Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico)

66 Comments

    • Yes, though i think his time will come soon if Navas keep’s on playing like against Salzburg as he was not good at all ! Conceding a very unnecessary penalty and during the whole game performed really bad as must have been the worst game i ever saw him play…this might ring the bell hopefully in lopetegui’s head…and start Montiel instead of Navas !

  1. Recently J. Correa has impressed me most he looks like a real deal. He was always good but now he is better. Both Correa are blessing for Argentina.
    Erik Lanela is also looking good he should be next midfielder come to Argentina midfield very hard working player.
    For me best Argentina midfield include Lo celso,Paredes,De Paul, Erik Lamela,G.Rodriguez,Emi Buendia and Papu Gomez. This is World Class midfield.

    • Well, Arg has allways had plenty of quality players through the history of Arg football nevermind were they goalie’s, defenders, middfielders or forwards/strikers…as also for present there is plenty of quality to choose from as Arg have goalies like Dibu, Musso and Benitez for example also up front and for middle and wingers playing like in attacking role there is many options as for defence Arg have got options too as great as Cuti for example and others too so we will see when time is right who are the one’s best for Arg NT selected by Scaloni and his crew….some will be obviously dropped as competion is hard for all those players who are more less involded in Scaloni’s and the crew’s plan’s…so time will tell…and all the best for Arg NT !

  2. Well, 1st night of Champions league is behind and allready waiting for tomorrow as very intrested to see if both Lisandro and Tagliafigo would play for Ajax also offcourse for Messi’s first champ league game with PSG and hopefully with Di Maria and Paredes also playing as i dont know if Icardi is Still injured if not then would be great to see him too as it won’t be easy with PSG with so much strengt amongst their ranks, but also Mbabbe got injured during the WCQ’s so also don’t know if he is fit to play either anyhow my main intrest and focus will be at Athletico and hopefully A.Correa and De Paul will play as really looking forward for Inter to beat real and hopefully both Lautaro and J.Correa will play and score too!

  3. PSG saved Messi. Bayern smoking barca again but with Messi they would have blamed him. Remember core that are costing barca are still there like alba, roberto, busquets, pique, lenglet etc.

    • Yes it was good thing in the end for Messi to leave, though blody barthomeu should have let him leave allready year before as this time he with his family was clearly not aware to move away from Barca, though i’m sure Messi is quite happy now that he don’t have to carry the whole Barca through the whole season by himself as it is obvious Barca is nothing without him !

      • Yes Bayern allways good, but not really test yet as Barca is so so poor without Messi, though good that he left in the end as with Barca he would not have won anything more with Barca as will be or is allready the new version of what happened to once at Ac Milan…

    • Yes lopetegui should play Papu as no. 10 and Ocampos on the left with Acuna’s support and Montiel and coco on the right as it was obvious that all the Arg’s were Sevilla’s best, though Montiel just got some minutes of the game…

      • Well next time he will ! As coco played a good game and was clearly the best after coming in, though Acuna was rock solid as allways too also Papu had some moments, but maybe as AFA said he should play behind the striker as no.10 and on the right Sevilla should just play Montiel and Coco on the right and Acuna and Ocampos on the left…

  4. OMG ! With allready on yellow card Still this sevillian striker from morocco has try diving as a resulted in the second yellow which combined together as red card !
    Total idiotism !

  5. EnganChe
    “At this rate you are a great candidate for the Mundo Hall of Shame to join the likes of Kidulthood, Romance King and Kevin”.

    my friend you make me laugh with my heart God bless you ha ha ha 🙂 🙂 🙂
    personally i give the gold medal to kidulthood ,silver medal to romance king and bronze to kevin !!!

  6. What a game between Sevilla vs Salzburg ! First half not yet even finnished as Salzburg had 3 penalties gifted by Sevilla’s players as Diego carlos, Navas and Bono, but only scored one by Susic and then one penalty for Sevilla scored by Rakitic…so 2 croatian’s on the scoresheet both from penalties, LOL !

    • Ocampos just returned from injury so probably not in full fitness or form. At this point I am surprised that Lamela has not started one game but at least he is coming off of the bench most likely. Montiel debut is being very postponed hope it happens today

      • Would have been perfect game for Montiel to stop this young German striker apparently ranked as very high talent called as adeyimi or something like that also last time German’s beat Armenia 6-0 he scored 1 goal coming in as substitute as in this game he was the first ever in champ league history to gain 3 penalties in one game for his team…as also there has never been 4 penalties during one match in champ league history and they all came at first half, LoL!

  7. The biggest miss in 2014 especially in the extra time apart from Di Maria is Carlos Tevez. Not a big fan of him but nobody can deny he got more fighting spirit (in all ways unfortunately) than Messi. Sabella wasted three spots in Campanegro Alvarez n Agusto Fernandez. Banega and Tevez in place of Gago ( he was awesome in 2014 qualifiers but completely out of from in the whole tournament) and Palacios might have changed the history maybe. Not sure we will ever overcome the screaming commentary “Goetzeee”. At the extra time more attack from Germany came from right and realising the tiredness of our defenders especially Zabalata, Sabella should have brought Campanegro to switch to a back 5. huh.. nothing going to change our pains.. hope we get our own “Goetzeee” moment one day..

    • Yes, very well remembered ! Unfortunatly, though…! At mean while Acuna looking really pace and playing like super inteligent football once again for Sevilla ! Also Papu has got some touches allready…really looking forward for Sevilla this season ! As Tevez would have been exxelent choice for 2014 even never was real big fan of him, though Westham will never forget him and Mascherano, too !

  8. The difference between 2014 Argentina team and current team is that this current team is more creative with Lo celso,Paredes and De Paul and even have better substitute.

    • Well, Kevin Sabella hit the wall just before the WC as more or less the fantastic 4 was fully injured as only Messi and Di Maria were able to start, though Messi was playing with some knocks through the hole tournament as Higuian did became back and was able to play he could not reach his best as he just came back from injury as Aguero was injured for whole tournament even it started as was Higuian too and then Di Maria got injured before the final and Real did not let him play…well, Yes the bench was very weak with players like Ricky Alvarez, Palacios, etc…also Banega was left out just before at the last moment…as for injuryprone Gago did not last even a whole game if i remember right and Maxi Rodriquez was pass with his peak allready, so all this happened very quickly and Sabella was clearly counting on Aguero and Higuain who in the end was able to play at least, but not with his best unfortunatly…as for the weak bench i do not have really an answer and i think that will remain like it was as Sabella is no more with us as he has passed away… R.I.P Sabella ! Offcourse it easy an easy thing to say now as i would have also liked to see the one’s of Icardi, Banega, Pastore, Lamela included in that squad, but, just to remind that all this happened 7 year’s a go ! As it is very long time as there was even 1 WC 2018 played after that, well i would not go to compare previous WC teams to any team at all as it all has happened allredy in the past and we are living just this exact moment, not in the past or not in the future as only in present, period !

  9. friends whats ur opinion about Walter Benitez???
    He didn’t conciede any goal last four matches…should consider him our 3rd GK over Armani or Rulli??

    • Over Armani for sure, Rulli probably too (although I must admit I still have a soft spot for him). Martinez, Musso and Benitez seems like a great GK trio to have.

      • Yes, those 3 will be fantastic goalies to have for any team in the world as Arg should and would be very proud of those 3, though we will see if Scaloni will pick Benitez as only thing i can think of why not to pick him is maybe he is scared of that team chemistry as so far has been build of would be tarnish by Benitez as i don’t see him destroying Arg team chemistry as if he will be called by Scaloni, but maybe Scaloni think’s differently and forsure he know’s better, though i hope Armani is done for good and until Aguero starts firing like before when he was in form there is no place for him in the team, but if he will pull the that last rope and get in to super form and stay fit most importantly then, well at least he has an chance, but i don’t think we have to talk about that right now as there is Still lot of time for every player to improve and get in to that right form and most importantly play well and stay fit ! Arg has so many options for upfront that instead of concentrating upfront Arg should concentrate more on defence and try improve that if possible…

    • Benetiz should be 2nd or third GK. No Armani. The only Armani I like is Armani Exchange.
      So I’d Armani exchange for Benetiz and keep healthy competition in gk position. I know I used this joke before 🙂

    • Achi, you are either a troll or one negative dude!

      Have you ever made a positive statement on this blog? E.g. Messi was at his best today or Joaquin Correa is great as a super sub, etc, etc.

      At this rate you are a great candidate for the Mundo Hall of Shame to join the likes of Kidulthood, Romance King and Kevin.

      • “Have you ever made a positive statement on this blog? E.g. Messi was at his best today or Joaquin Correa is great as a super sub, etc, etc.”
        Everybody knew messi was superb against bolivia or Joaquin correa and it was already written on mundo millions of times , so you want everyone to repeat same shit again and again? But very few of us noticed Fiorentina defence has improved without Pezella , it warning that Scaloni should find his replacement atleast one year before Qatar.

        • Fiorentina defense improved without Pezzella? What is your sample size, how many games? Not enough to warrant such far reaching conclusions. They also have a new coach and a new formation, 4-3-3 instead of the usual 3-5-2 they used to play. It could be a ton of different factors and variables.

          But the sample size of your negative statements is far larger. Just saying…

          • I think people underestimate how much a new coach can change a defense. In fact in many many cases good defending is reliant a lot more on the system than individual players. That is why it is sometimes hard to quantify how good an individual defender is without watching several games. I am not saying Pezzella is world class and I recognize that we need a replacement for the World Cup but a bit too unnecessarily harsh

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