Argentine Champions League preview: Lautaro Martínez, Cristian Romero

By
Roy Nemer
-
9

The Champions League continues on Tuesday with several games and up to 10 Argentine players could be participating in them.

Lautaro Martínez and Joaquín Correa play Viktoria Plzen in the early kick off game. Inter lost their opening game vs. Bayern and have yet to score a goal in the Champions League.

Cristian Romero and Tottenham Hotspur are away against Sporting in the second early kick off game on Tuesday. Both teams top the group having each won their opening game.

Lucas Ocampos and Ajax will look to make it two wins out of two in the Champions League as they host Liverpool. Ocampos recently joined Ajax from Sevilla.

Leonardo Balerdi and Marseille host Lucas Alario and Europa League champions Eintracht Frankfurt. Both teams lost their opening match last week.

Exequiel Palacios will not be part of the Bayer Leverkusen team against Atletico Madrid. Palacios suffered an injury and will not be part of the team for the game.

Ángel Correa and Rodrigo De Paul both scored for Atletico Madrid in their last league game with Nahuel Molina also starting that game. Atletico won their first match in the Champions League last week agaisnt FC Porto.

Here are the matches involving Argentine players in the Champions League on Tuesday:

Viktoria Plzen vs. Inter (Lautaro Martínez, Joaquín Correa)

Sporting vs. Tottenham Hotspur (Cristian Romero)

Liverpool vs. Ajax (Lucas Ocampos)

Marseille (Leonardo Balerdi) vs. Eintracht Frankfurt (Lucas Alario)

Bayer Leverkusen (Exequiel Palacios) vs. Atletico Madrid (Rodrigo De Paul, Ángel Correa, Nahuel Molina)

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

9 Comments

  2. I don’t watch PSG games because I don’t see any reason doing that. People here still compare Messi of PSG with the real Messi. I don’t think it is valid. I will show show you why.

    Messi of Barca and Messi of Argentina is the go to man. All attacks are designed to go through Messi or finish with Messi. Messi of Barca is designed to be Robin, not Batman. He is not the go to man. Messi somehow accepts that role in Barca because both Neymar and Mbappe are hungry for their first ever Ballon D’or.

    When Messi play for Argentina, the old issue used to be: they respected Messi way too much. But now they fix the issue. The offense just moves around Messi. If you think that Messi plays the pure number 10/enganche (Maradona role). I disagree. He is a pure playmaker for PSG yes, but for Argentina he is still the false 9. He is still most of the time inside the penalty box. Against Estonia he scored 5. A pure playmaker won’t score 5 in a game even in their wildest dreams. Against Italy he had quite a lot of shot on goal.

    So I don’t think Messi has changed at all. The real Messi is still the best player in the world. He might not be that explosive anymore but he is NOT worse than the peak Messi especially now that his Argentina teammates already know how to work with him and make him the go to man. I can guarantee you he will show who he really is against Honduras and Jamaica.

    CR7 though yes, he’s past his best. Messi? no

    • Agreed, although technically a false 9 is typically the only striker that plays centre-forward who drops deep to collect the ball and pass on to wingers or midfielders running into the box. Since Lautaro is already there, Messi is more of a hybrid combining the role of a creative playmaker with a second striker. Either way, he’s much more likely to score in the NT colours than PSG.

    • 100%. Messi knows little battle Neymar and Mbappe are having and he wants none of it. He dont give shit about either PSG, neymar or Mbappe. Messi is focusing on World cup and only after World cup, Messi will be fully committed to serve Mbappe of PSG.

  3. We had the biggest domestic game played. A super clasico well knows across the world, in football playing nations. A Boca vs River game is a tremendous visibility for brand of football. There are very few games bigger than this.

    Now, the question comes, what brand of Argentine football did we present in front of the whole world? Very poor quality and more dirty brand than something beautiful. This is what we are selling. I really don’t watch Brazilian league (could care less), so can’t compare. But if this is what we are offering as the best version of local football, then I am not surprised why our players are not going to big clubs with big money transfer.

    Very frustrating. Something need to be done for the local football.

    • you are so right for what you said. i am really very sad after the last game and i am really very very sad about the downfall of Argentine league which is really big last years.
      it is really easy to find the reason. with one word AFA. Everything is politics in Argentina.
      the big teams don t care for the good of their product and they only care to fight each other who will control AFA to gain the advantage from the others.

      the solution is very easy too but nobody care to sit to a table and take decitions for the good of Argentine league. it is needed only 22-24 maximum number of teams in Primera and 3 or 4 teams relegation every season and an agreement between Tapia and the 2 presidents (River and Boca) to stop the war and keep it civilized.
      that is all is needed. BUT…….

    • I agree with most of your sentiments but allow me to interject

      “But if this is what we are offering as the best version of local football, then I am not surprised why our players are not going to big clubs with big money transfer.”

      I think part of the problem is that it’s the other way around. If clubs in Europe paid fair prices for our talented players like they do for Brazilians then we could rebuild our teams better. For example, yesterday the game (at least for River) would have looked significantly better if a) Enzo and Alvarez were still there or b) if they paid Brazilian prices for both players and we had the money to buy better players than Gomez, Herrera, Paradela, etc etc. Of course there are a huge amount of factors because of the politics cox mentioned, economics, etc (and naturally you’d expect the Brazilian league to be better given they have 4-5 times our population and less teams in it). I think that the league is worsening for many reasons in a downward spiral but if the factor of player sales improved / became fairer you’d see a higher level in games like these for sure.

Comments are closed.