Argentina starting eleven, three changes, Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martinez start

By
Roy Nemer
-
124

The Argentina starting eleven is out and Lautaro Martinez is back in the squad and will start alongside Lionel Messi.

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has made a few changes from the last match. Nicolas Tagliafico comes in for the injured Marcos Acuña and Nicolas Gonzalez starts in place of Angel Di Maria.

Lautaro Martinez is fully fit and back in the squad, which means Joaquin Correa makes the bench. Here is the starting eleven:

Emiliano Martínez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Paredes, Lo Celso, Nicolas González; Messi and Lautaro Martinez

The players who don’t make the bench are Andrada, Acuña, Martínez Quarta, Lisandro Martínez, Foyth, Nico Domínguez and Lucas Alario.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

124 Comments

  3. Result is excellent Win by 3-0 at home against Oscar Tabarez ‘s team is special to celebrate for Scaloni. Still plenty of chances; a room for improved and evaluate. Overall i will give 4 stars for today performance. Romero and Emi huge impact.

    Tabarez late intro to R.Araujo and Cavani makes his days with Uruguay N/T is counting !!

  5. Messi will not lose his performance until the WC………fuck ESPN FC……..a channel full of bastards…….They were like who knows if Messi will be the same by the time WC arrives

    • Brother, who tf cares about guys like Ale Moreno who scored 50 goals in 10 years😂😂 or that clown Shaka, why is he even on a panel of so called “experts” ?? What did they achieve in their lackluster careers that they get the right to judge how generational talents like Messi or Neymar play or should play, don’t listen to them watch for laughs and leave

    • why the hell you care for them? why you need aproval from those people?
      Enjoy the night and the team and don t give value to the nobodies.
      let everybody underate us. it is not bad. it is in our advantage. the shock for them next year will be huge. let them continue. wait and be patient.

    • You guys need to stop being babies. That’s fact who knows if Messi will be at the same level by the time the world cup arrives? Will you bet your life on it?
      It’s the ESPN’S guys opinion and I’m sure they don’t have anything against Messi.

  7. Simply amazing. We are just getting better and better. Defensively we are solid as always and offensively we keep improving.

    Dibu, Cuti, Molina, De Paul, Lo Celso, Messi, and Lautaro all deserve an 8 or higher.

  9. Awesome 3 points. Master display & undoubtfully our best match in this WCQ campaign. Now need to see A Correa, Papu & Guido get some quality minutes against Peru.

  11. If GLC can maintain his fitness, he can become one of the best midfielder in the world.. DePaul GLC can create lot of opportunities for Argentina from right and left side.. This side looks so balanced.. Vamos Argentina

  13. Never seen this kind of amazing play in the recent past.
    Vamos Argentina! The energy level of Nico is unparalleled.! Even after 70th minutes, he was running like cheetah.!

    • Easy, Gonzalez and Lautaro can’t finish chances. All Lol Celso needed to do after going past the goalie was to shoot immediately but he didn’t.

  26. Ok, so much to unpack here but this is a Jekyll and Hyde team. This game is good but guys we would be extremely lucky to win the world cup next year with backward passing and sky shots Pareses, Nico Gonzalez, Nahuel Molina and Lautaro. I’m not going to mention Lol Celso because he does things well defensively and creates chances.

    We need to bring back some of the more reliable experienced guys like Lanzini, Lamela and give Dybala more chances when he’s healthy. This game should have been 5-0 by now. The worst miss was Lo Celso’s.

    OMG! Emi Martinez is simply amazing. Vamos Argentina!!!

    • If u are the coach Argentina will be like 2018 world cup team. Don’t cry for Lanzini, Lamela. First u need to understand the football dude.

      • When you have a critical response to give then you can come talk to me. The 2018 team had better talent than this team. The difference is this present group of guys are playing more like a team and Scaloni actually has a plan.

        I stand by what I said it will be a miracle if Argentina wins the world cup with Lautaro needing 5 chances to score one and Paredes consistently passing backwards and blasting off target shots into the air and Nico Gonzalez not having a good end product.

  30. “We are basically playing without a central midfielder – Parades doesn’t exist. As a follow through, we see Otamendi, Romero stepping into the midfield.”

    i think its a bit more than that. the midfield is very heavily man marked by valverde and vecino in the first half. there is no room to turn there. but at the same time there is no real forward line press from them so there is room for ota and romero to step up.

    i mentioned below our strategic choice is to play in very tight space in the middle. that’s why he goes with player with tighter control like lo celso and parades. this strategy is not for someone like guido. we will see though if he makes adjustments after 2-0 because uruguay will certainly make change now.

  31. I enjoyed that half so much.
    The passing and possession was top tier stuff
    Martinez saves were too level. I was so scared when I saw the ball landing on Suarez. But our gk somehow stopped it.
    The goals were goals. They show that no matter the way, we need to get up front and make chances.

  33. Lionel Messi becomes the FIRST South American player to score 80 goals! He also provided 51 assists so far.

    131 G/A in 155 games.
    Cheers to our Captain.

  35. What a game so far our chemistry and speed of passing looks worldclass today just before the half time whisitle they made some ticki-taka moves as well😍

    EMI-CUTI-DEPAUL-LOCELSO are awesone in first half Leo with one single brilliance made the match argentinas favor
    Uff i wish scaloni give this attacking job always to depaul and lo celso they are beast when given freedom to move arround

    Also as always i want to see more balls to Molina the boy always in great advance positions waiting for pass he is fast and his crossing are brilliant

    • Yes Molina deffenetly seems to get more up front and his crosses are very good as many times he was totally free on that side waiting for ball to come to him, but no passes arrived also i liked when Messi was passing the ball for him as like couraging him for his upwork and constant movenent for advance position this is one thing Arg can easily proove even more as Molina is deffenetly willing to get in advance position as in Udinese too so it could be a handy option too getting crosses from him to the box or just attack through him from the right as i’m sure it will benefit Messi to try to create understanding with Molina on the right side as time will pass it could be a really deadly weapon and good option as RDP AND LO CELSO ARE MUST FOR CREATING THE PLAY also N.Gonzales is good to have on the pitch as he would also improve game by game etc…

  36. This is the Tango that I love! Such good passing and we are so good at keeping the ball. Every time the ball comes to one of our midfielders or defenders, I’m confident that they can turn and dribble out of the pressure.
    I also love that our goals are coming from constant pressure in the box. When you put that kind of pressure, even if the first one doesn’t go in, there is always someone there to try again. This is just fun to watch!
    (Also, the Argentine style Asado is AMAZING! I lived there for 2 years and all the beef was the BEST! So simple, just the beef and rock salt and cooked over a charcoal fire. The taste and amount of meat was delicious.)

  37. It would have been a different game had we not have Emi Martinez making two critical saves in the first 25 mins.

    We are basically playing without a central midfielder – Parades doesn’t exist. As a follow through, we see Otamendi, Romero stepping into the midfield.

    Lautaro isn’t at his best but let him continue. DeMaria or Angel Correa for Nico, who has been mediocre so far. Although, LoCelso isn’t in his best form today, he is still serving very well- present everywhere just like DePaul. Montiel for Molina and Guaido for Parades in the second half.

    • A choice that I am liking is having Romero or Otamendi run forward after they pass the ball forward. They are adding another option on the attacking midfield that is often unmarked. I think it’s working well.

  38. Thats been a cracker of an half & hope intensity continues. One of the best halves in recent past with a worthy opposition who has also played tactically well. Just waiting to see the replay again. For once happy to see a Nico G ‘ miss’ & a Lautaro ‘mishit’ 😊

    • 😂😂 Oh you Argentina fans are overly optimistic. Brazil will finish first and Argentina second mark my words. But it doesn’t even matter of we finish fourth as long as we qualify for the world cup.

  40. The team finally show some character. And they are out of Messi dependence.

    There is some downside in the team I would like to mention though. Nico Gonzalez has great work rate but he impose no threat on the left side. And Tagliafico is not good enough for offense either. Nico Tagliafico combination is not very good imo. Molina will take RB position from Montiel sooner or later. He performs much better on attacking.

    • Those two are just not on the same page yet. You can tell in the first 15 minutes or so. when gonzalez starts to run tagliafico’s head is down, and when tagliafico looks up down the line, Gonzalez is on his heels. this is a clear sign of missing chemistry between the two.

  41. Emi martinez and Romero makes a confident back line… few hiccups here n there but decent performance from our team… lets go!!!

  42. Just how good is Emi Martinez!! The best goalkeeper in the world at the moment. Gives his team a chance to win in every game. Brilliant saves in this one also.

  43. Whenever Nico, Lautaro and Lo Celso play together, its a dangerous combination. Lots of goal opportunities. Maybe because of the hustling of Nico and Lautaro upfront unlock Lo Celso. Unfortunately, in Copa, Nico and Lautaro missed some chances but I was very optimistic that this combination will come good soon or later.
    But high five to Dibu.

    • I hope Alario can be fit enough soon and given chances. He’s like a Poor man’s Lewandowski. He keeps things simple and doesn’t need too many chances to score. I know many here hate Icardi but we need a proper 9 who finishes off the chances instead of having to create 7 chances to score 2. This will not be the case at the world cup.

      I have a feeling that if Argentina secures top 4 position then maybe Scaloni can experiment and give a chance to the other players who barely play.

  44. Finally.. feeling relieved.. could have scored one more. But I fail to understand why does Scaloni prefer Nico gonzales? He obviously can’t score.. physically he is not huge.. his ball control, passing nothing is special.. may be we could have tried A Correa.. I really like his play.. Vamos Vamos Argentina

    • Check the first goal. Its the run Nico makes at the right time opens up spaces in tight situations. I ve seen him do that a lot. Football is like a puzzle. You need all the pieces work together. Messi saw that run which helped him create that goal.

      • Lol, stop. Messi was trying to pass to Nico and he completely missed it. Nico’s only positives are his speed and work rate but he’s not reliable for finishing off chances.

  45. I don’t remember when was the last time we were continuously going for blood like this. Probably under Tata.
    Thoroughly enjoyable.
    This is the Argentina I fall into love.
    Vamos.

  47. It’s the Asado baby! 😂
    Rain or shine I am grilling every game without exception from now on.
    All our friends in Asia, you guys need to learn the Argentina style bbq before world cup comes around so we can lift the trophy.

  54. goal! weird one but we’ll take it.
    there is no strategic desire to play a linear pass for longer than 10-15 meters or so it seems. even when there is width they would prefer to bypass the mid block using shorter triangles.

    watch the closest chance we had – lo celso. what is the difference? long throw from emi, long diagonal by de paul and lo celso on goal. bang bang!

    its good to want to control tempo by shorter play but once in a while you have to release faster.

      • At least Colombia broke Brazil winning streak in this qualifier.

        According to some people here, Portugal and France are WC favorites. They both didnt pass round 16 in Euro.

        According to ESPN pundits, Germany and Spain were fav in WC 2018. Germany lost to Asian and American teams , Spain eliminated by Russia. European teams are surely superior! not! they won more WC because there are more 50+ countries in Europe and there’s only 10 footballing countries in South American. By ratio, South American is still more successful.

        • Don’t compare result of 2018 wc. Time has changed. Now germany and spain is much stronger than 2018 same like Argentina. Remember in 2018 we lost against Croatia 3-0 and france and drew with Iceland and scrapped through a win against Nigeria. World Cup is different. In 4 years time many things change. Coaches change, new player comes. This spain team apart from 1-2 senior players all r newcomers completely different than spain in 2018.germany will also be dangerous with flick as their coach and france has talents just need to check their egos. Our path will not be easy. Even Portugal looks strong on paper also England can surprise.

Comments are closed.