Argentina starting eleven, Lionel Messi and Julián Álvarez up front

By
Roy Nemer
-
353

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni has announced his starting eleven for the quarter final match with Lionel Messi and Julian Alvarez up front.

Lionel Scaloni has went with three center backs, as it can be a 5-3-2 or a 3-5-2 on the pitch. Ángel Di María does not start as Lisandro Martínez is in the starting eleven with Nicolas Otamendi and Cristian Romero. Here is the eleven:

Emiliano Martínez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Lisandro Martínez, Acuña; De Paul, Enzo, Mac Allister; Messi, Álvarez

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353 Comments

  1. I switched my TV off when the bloody Dutch scored the 2nd due to Pezzella’s silly foul.It is 4am here in Pakistan. I checked the score closing my eyes and praying.Wow!Now I can watch the highlights. I’m feeling as if I’m flying.

  2. Monstrous games from Licha, El Dibu, El Huevo, Enzo, Mac Alister, and Ota (so many aerial duels won). We could’ve done better managing the game in normal time, the De Paul sub gave off weird Pekerman and Riquelme vibes, overall a torturing experience bt it has sharpened and unified the team more. Toro slowly getting involved and confident. We shall miss smashing VARzil. Dale Tango. Vamos Carajo.

  3. Congrats everyone!!!!!!!!! Vamos!!!!
    Can we celebrate until Sunday night at least before we start the bullshi antics ?
    McAlister was phenomenal today! Also Molina. Great performances from most of our team throughout.
    Let’s celebrate till Sunday then we can talk yellow cards and blunders.
    Vamos. Libertad muchachos!!!!!!!!

  5. We won.
    Had flashbacks of 2006 quarterfinals.
    Don’t blame the players.
    Weghorst and De Jong were mismatch for our players.
    Scaloni instructed them to play defensive like against Australia.
    Same mistake.
    Hopefully we learn from it.

    Did you catch Messi’s Riquelme tribute.
    Van Gaal almost destryed Riquelme’s career.
    Riquelme was an artist and so was Aimar.
    2006 world cup will haunt me all my life that we didn’t win.

    • Yep, I hope we learn not to go 100% defensive with 20 minutes. We did it across two games and nearly paid both times. We were once characterized by maintaining leads. Maybe five minutes. But I think it would be better to not invite pressure and keep slow, safe, even boring possession. Keep playing like we do before we score goals, but maybe slightly more boring. Not to start depending on Otamendi, Cuti, and Licha to take 60 aerial balls out. They are incredible but eventually they will lose a duel. It happens. We can’t be last ditch for that long

    • Very much defensive then.. after 2-0 he should have introduce Dybala in place of Alvarez…
      Guido ,Palacios Foyth are the players to be used as sub not Pezzela,Paredes

  7. Congratulations on the team’s fourth win. I expected the team to win 3-0 but unfortunately we were leveled when the Dutch pressed in. They are stronger physically. They are still very difficult opponents to play. Their first goal from an air-to-air situation, the second was a pretty clever arrangement. Those are valuable lessons that we need to heed. Overall, the whole team played well but underpowered. I dreamed that the defenders also scored and today Molina did. Enzo had an unlucky day. Emi is still excellent. There is no doubt about Lautaro’s bravery. I really like Leo’s new penalty kick. It is very effective. This win is a team effort. I also predicted Brazil to be eliminated and it happened

  8. We would miss two players in the semifinal – Montiel and Acuna. Croatia would miss none. The Spanish referee was a trigger happy guy today. Someone from Dutch reserve bench invade the pitch and pounces upon Molina and no card!!! WoW!!!

  12. Emi is the hero. He is at least already in Goyco league now in Argentina hall of famer.

    Molina has his best game of his life. Finally he was in his Udinese form. Attacking non stop, discipline defensively.

    Cuti was amazing. He shows that he is still the best Argentina defender. Never lost any duel.

    Licha height was an issue in this game. He was too small to mark that Weighorst in Dutch first goal.

    Enzo is a star in the making. His shooting, dribbling, crossing, and his confidence is off the chart. He failed his PK but that’s OK.

    MacAllister was useful especially defensively.

    Acuna played not too good until he won that PK but he defended the left side better than Tagli.

    De Paul was good for a half injured player.

    Di Maria is always a difference maker.

    Messi was great, he needs to improve his shooting in the WC though. A lot of his shooting was too high.

    Lautaro is back to normal, I can tell that.

    Paredes not too good but his PK technique is the best one.

    Montiel is River Plate PK specialist, glad he was trusted to take one.

    Alvarez was so so.

  14. Phew! Almost had a heart attack! But glad we won.

    Why is Scaloni so defensive minded? He is basically saying we will just defend and upfront there is just Messi and another striker. This puts too much burden on Messi.

  16. By the way, I’m going to speak like I usually don’t speak, but all the IDIOTS, yes, IDIOTS that were commenting and criticizing Montiel and his ability to kick can suck it. If you paid any attention ever you would know that he has a 100% record with penalties and balls. Yes, he isn’t our starter above Molina, Molina is in better shape, form, level, etc. But to doubt him off the bench in the end of a game with WEIGHT and PRESSURE during penalties shows you never paid attention. I’ve said multiple times, Montiel is good in penalties and it’s maybe his biggest strength. Anyway, I need to calm down.

      • Molina, Messi, Cuti, Enzo, and Emi (because of his heroic PK only) more than the rating of 8 to me. Licha height was an issue today though. The Dutch took advantage of that.

        • Right El Principe, I specifically remember yelling at the screen when they brought on Weghorst because I knew they were going to “cagarnos a centros”. That is exactly what happened, a cross and a goal from him. He’s a unit. I trust in Licha 100% but it shouldn’t have been him marking him specifically, though I do need to analyze the play again.

          • Licha is a good defender but when a team specifically target his height and put taller players to match up with him, Licha’s weakness is exposed. In EPL debut, the Brighton coach also admitted that he targeted Licha’s height in a match where they lost.

        • And to add on about Licha a second thing, he is good in the air for his size. He has good technique and can beat people taller than him. BUT if he comes against someone who’s taller and ALSO really good in the air there is the problem. Logically Licha is at a disadvantage there.

      • Right, and what surprises me is people were saying Montiel is in bad form (not that it is entirely false given the last couple of months compiled plus the World Cup) but then actively asked for Foyth these last couple of weeks after he demonstrated he’s in TERRIBLE form and got smoked by UAE players of all countries. They pick and choose because of their biases. I want all players to play well no matter what, I don’t hate on anyone. And when I say “people” I do mean a select few big-mouths, not everyone of course.

  19. Yesterday on the TV I put on a repetition of the penalties against Holland in 2014 and then I watched the Colombia ones last year. Then a mix of the two happened a day later. Beautiful, just beautiful. We have things to improve, we have things to critique (constructively), but the haters can suck it. We showed up when we had to, even if it was after what looked like a disaster. I hope this gives us more confidence.

  22. Te amo Dibu. Te amo Leo. Te amo general. Te amo Lautaro. Te amo Cuti. Te amo Lisandro. Te amo Molina. Te amo Montiel. Te amo Fideo. Te amo Julian. Te amo Paredes. Te amo Mac Allister. Te amo Enzo. Te amo Rodri. Te amo Pezzella, si, tambien vos. Te amo Scaloni. Te amo seleccion. Vamos todavia seleccion de mi vida.

    • I think he asked for it too, if I’m not wrong in this moment, he took one of the most pressurizing heavy penalties in the history of Argentina. Thank you Lautaro.

  25. I couldn’t resist posting!! Nerve wrecking, i almost punched Pezella (read tv) for that stupid foul…anyway a good penalty by Lautaro to get his confidence back. Vamos.. like this never say die attitude, but Scaloni needto work on defending for sure. This is not the same defence which won us the Copa, we are panicking even when 2-0 up and only 7 min remaining. But kudos to Dutch to stretch it all the way.. Now Croatia waiting, I got a feeling that Scaloni might just use his wild card aka Dybala in the SF.

  26. Yes, we were soo lucky today….however, at least we had good mentality, we were still able to overcome the nervous and won the game.

    Scaloni had a good lesson learned here….

    Vamos Albiceleste…

        • Yes the same as Columbia Argentina semi final. Scaloni will learn a much from this match.

          To not sub out Romero for nothing.
          To not to be so defensive again.
          To not sub out De Paul so early.

          • To not sub out Romero for nothing.
            To not to be so defensive again.
            To not sub out De Paul so early.

            I agree. I thought he was smart for replacing 2 players who carried a yellow in Cuti and Acuna but the damage of losing these 2 players were massive! I mean Pezzella and Tagli were like a super downgrade. Especially the Dutch was targeting Licha’s lack of height all night.

  30. I was very nervous when I saw Lautaro…I expected Mac Allister.
    Lautaro is good in penalties but the current form..! Luckily he was cool. His confidence level is always high.

  31. We were lucky.
    We kept giving away the ball in the 2nd half in the last 20 min. Scaloni should have brought Di Maria or Dybala, someone who can hold the ball.

  33. Horrible referring and horrible replacement decisions by Scaloni almost sank us. We are lucky to be still floating. Scaloni did almost the same blunders like Pekerman in 2006. How could you take away the cream of your defence – Romero and Acuna BOTH. We are celebrating because somehow we managed to win. But what costly decisions from the coach!!! And the referee was so determined to go on playing till Netherlands scored. Wow!! A Spanish with a Dutch heart. Then he decided to ensure that even if Argentina proceeds to the semifinal, a sizeable core of the team would miss the match. Even Messi is on a yellow card now and we do not have Acuna. Why doesn’t someone change the name of the tournament from World Cup to ‘This is Euro and come at your risk’.

    BUT ARGENTINA PLAYED LIKE A BUNCH OF LIONS IN THE EXTRA TIME!! THEY WERE ANGRY. THEY WERE HUNGRY. LUCK WAS NOT WITH US. OTHERWISE ENZO WOULD HAVE BEEN THE HERO OF THE MATCH.

    • But in the extra time we got a bit lucky because we were so offensive by taking out Licha and put Di Maria in. All of our midfielders were running out of stamina. I was seriously hoping for PK because it was too risky. Glad we won

  36. I said this before. We would have to win in spite of ourselves and bad habits. Every NT coach makes silly subs (look at Brazil with Richarlson & Vinicious Jr… my Brazilian friend said Tite acted like an Argentine coach and I laughed).

    Today DePaul and Cuti subbed out. Then Paredes wants to fight and Emi gets cocky. Destiny warned us today.

    Oh, how I wished Enzo would have scored before the penalty kicks!

    Thank God we won. Keep praying guys!

    • Paredes also guilty. He kicked the ball to the Dutch bench and because of that, we got 10 minutes of injury time. Our players need attention to all small details.

  46. I will take any win. The Dutch got so lucky. This referee is horrible, every clean tackle is a foul. No FK is a FK. Even soft penalty is a definite penalty. Everyone receives yellow.

    • Come we played better extra time.attack after attack. We didint win by luck. We didnt beat them reqular time becuase the dutch team were lucky

  71. Where is di maria??? We need him the most now, he can create havoc in dutch defence!! Pezzela and leo paredes definitely the culprit! We made the easy match tough for us!!

  79. Lautaro when on the pitch, 5 goals conceded. When not on the pitch, 0 goals conceded. Unlucky? Either way if Argentina somehow progress after this embarrassing collapse and he doesn’t end up on the score sheet, he, Paredes, and Pezella should never see the pitch this tournament again

  80. Even if we win we cannot be proud…shitty play overall… no ball control cannot hold posession…now well be fucking tired.even if we progress ….

    we rely on grit and determination not our hallmark style…

  83. I believe in Sabella and Scaloni but they always made grave mistakes in crucial matches!
    We need to defend against heading, then he replaced Romero! We needed to keep the ball calm, then he replaced De Paul!

  88. Emi and Paredes’ antics changed the game. Once again over time with this team. I can’t believe it. All we had to do is win midfield. Now tied with Pezzela, no Romero on. Bring in DiMaria or Dybala please.

    Pray for Argentina guys! Pray, Pray, Pray!

  89. We can blame ourselves. We did not keep the ball and kept giving it away.
    Dumb Dumb Dumb

    Now, we’re fucked with all those tall guys.

  98. God doesn’t like Messi and Argentina. It was literally the final second. How can you give away a set piece and defend like that?

  99. I can’t watch it anymore…. The match is ours to loose, we played so badly after going 2 goals up. Why lord why?! Being an Argentine fan is suffering… totally disappointed. 😔

  118. I feel sorry for the Dutch. They are too weak and overrated. Luuk De Jong god know where he is playing now. Used to be the back up of the back up strikers of BArca last year. Bergwjin is Spurs failure. Depay is a back up. All of them plus a bunch of nobodies.

    They are super overrated. I am glad we meet them, not Croatia in the QF. Btw they create 0 chance and 0 shot on goal so far.

  125. We have to get better in transition when we have the ball. Too many missed-placed passes. Losses balls, heavy touches, heavy passes, and confusion. We need to finish them off!

  126. This referee doesn’t like Messi. I was wondering if the fourth official will remind him that this is WC and he should put personal disagreement away?

  131. I can’t believe it. I can’t believe it. What we are living is tremendous. 45 minutes of death and years off my life will be shaved but we have to keep going. Para ser campeon, hoy hay que ganar!

  132. How can Fifa give this clown to referee an important game is beyond me ?

    We will need to bring pezella and tagliafico in 70 minutes. I know its a thin lead, we can probably try to counter and get 1 more but we should be fine.

    I tore my t-shirt when Molina scored 😂

  133. What a foolish and needless yellow card by Romero. As for Acuna I know Scaloni will fix it should Argentina qualify for the semi finals. But Romero doesn’t inspire confidence in me.

    Secondly can the players minimize giving unnecessary fouls at dangerous areas

  134. Netherland has a history of coming back from set pieces. Remember 2010 QF against Brazil?

    We need to make sure 1) No red card 2) 100% concentration in set pieces.

  136. Hope if Tagli plays in the second half, he doesn’t make a stupid defensive error. Cuti has a yellow but he needs to play. No one can replace him. It is too dangerous to switch it to 4-3-3 because this tactic is originally perfect to maintain the lead.

  137. Dutch tactic doesn’t work at all. They want to do quick counter attack, but that’s not going to do it. Sadly, that’s the only way for them trying to score.

    Other than that, they rely on their height, hoping to score. Also hoping to get PK. What a pathetic team. Their midfield is very weak. Probably one of the weakest among the quarter final teams.

  138. It’s a test for Scaloni. How will he make substitutions? We need get possessions back to calm down.

    Netherland will send everyone to attack at some point. How do we counter that?

  140. REFEREE MATHEW lapez one of worst referee of the world cup. He always want attention…needles yellow cards shown that could have been avoided…Now I’m more afraid to referee than Netherlands…

  141. This is what happens when you have a referee that has a very small dick and no testicles. He wants everybody to look at him because if he pulls down his pants you’d see he has nothing between his legs. Dickless piece of shit.

  183. Good luck, guys! This waiting is so painful. We always struggle againt european sides in knock out games. I expect a draw and a penalty shoot out. 🙈

  184. Guys please we have to concentrate on our game I don’t care about Brazil and don’t talk like we already through… And if we talk bad now about any team or anyone I’m afraid something bad is gonna happen to us…

    Now for real… I like the lineup I think we really have a chance to beat the Nederlands. But I don’t think like others it’s gonna be a 3:0 or something. It might be a very tough game and they are gonna step on Messis feet… We have one of the best defense line in this WC. The midfield is nice to Enzo and Mac were great so far de Paul is still the workhorse.

    I’m very excited

  185. I would like to have one more forward and one less defender as it will burn Messi energy early on. Other than that no problem. Vamos Argentina

  187. This is a lesson for all pundits that you don’t have to look good and need to grow into the tournament.
    I’m happy that we just done enough to win the matches and every one doubting us.
    Let’s get through to semi and bring our A game.

  188. Scaloni is suffering from take-it-to-extra-time mentality. Without Di Maria who is going to create chances? Brazil dominated today’s proceedings because they were creative. It is unfortunate that they had to lose this way. They should have scored from the multiple chances that their attacking front created. Di Maria would have shone against the defence of Netherlands where even USA created quite a few chances. Now Scaloni is closing the doors to creating such chances. But MacAllister, Enzo and Alvarez need to be super-pressing Netherlands.

  189. Ultra defensive formation to start with, and then sub in the attackers in the 70+ minutes when the Netherlands defense is worn down a bit. Smart tactics. This is not your typical Argentina team anymore, they are playing a lot more balanced and patient.

    Tite should have employed a similar strategy against the Croatians as well.

    • Acuna is going to have a busy day, winger in 3-5-2 when attacking and winning back the ball from the Dutch counter in the 5-3-2. Can’t wait for the game to start.

  191. That’s the benefit of losing your opening game. You’ve been to the worst situation and you’ve also gone through a super tough match against Mexico. We are mentally and practically prepared for the difficulties and challenges in KO stage. Brazilians were still thinking about some new dance moves.

  192. Damn idk if it’s the celebration before Brazil, but I feel more confident than ever ? Liquid courage ? No, we have the best damn player with the best team!!!!

    Vamos carajo

  195. Lisandro starting is good against Netherland.as he played in Ajax..
    But we will score more goal..
    This system is looking defensive but it is actually attacking as Acuna Molina McAllister will attack more and more … Alvarez is fine and we have Messi.. Believe in Messi..Vamos Argentinos,.. we will win 3-0

  196. I screamed like crazy. I didn’t celebrate so such this World Cup yet.

    Now I am going to go away. Superstitious. Will come back later. VAMOS 🇦🇷🇦🇷🇦🇷

  199. Back to our own business – I really like our lineup. This has all of our best talents – 3 world class CBs, dynamic midfielders, two clinical and most dangerous strikers.

  200. Let’s be real, even if it was going to be a Brazil and Argentina semis, we would have needed to say our blessings and goodbyes to some of the Mundo members as they probably wouldn’t make it past match

  202. Btw I am glad Acuna starting not Tagli. We conceded 5 goals when Tagli played. We conceded 0 goal when Acuna played (in the last 16 games) Plus Acuna is much better offensively. I say this is the best line up without Di Maria. If Di Maria played instead of one of the midfielders, then it is the best line up.

  205. Great lineup… I can watch in peace.

    Also two lessons:
    1. ONE GOAL LEAD IS NOT ENOUGH
    2. WE CANNOT GO TO PENALTIES – WE NEED TO WIN ON THE FIELD

    • Crazy Alisson is known to be the best PK stopper in the world along with Emi Martinez, but he couldn’t even stop 1.

      The game is the 100% reminiscence of Argentina Italy in WC 1990. Schilacci scored and Argentina never had a shot on goal. Then out of nowhere Caniggia equalized. Then in PK Goyco was the hero beating the tournament favorite. 100% the same.

  207. Brazil first time meets with a proper defensive team in this tournament with organized midfield and just enough strength in attack and all of a sudden their over-hyped attackers looks so mediocre and average!! Experienced Tite tactically outsmarted by the young Croatian coach!!

  211. Vamos Argentina! Let’s go! Now you’re the only SouthAmerucan team left…vamos! Vamos!

    Let’s gooooooooo!

    Vamos! Today is ours to take… leave it all on the field! Whatever happens… you’re warriors! Let’s go…!!!!

  212. Goals win you matches and defense wins you competition! Our strength this tournament is ironically our central defense and our CMs! I am with Scaloni with this ultra defensive lineup!!

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    • Nice. Where are those who were going Gaga over this Brazilian side and dare I remind this blog after our 1st game.
      All those trolls please have some decency and apologize 😂

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