Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Alejandro Garnacho and more players were cut from the Argentina team for the two World Cup qualifying matches.
Messi is the big name that was part of the preliminary Argentina team but did not make the final team for the two matches against Uruguay and Brazil. The 37 year old misses out due to injury.
Paulo Dybala is another big name for Argentina and he is out after being substituted with an injury for AS Roma in their last league match. Alejandro Garnacho does not make it as reports state that Benjamín Domínguez has won a place in the team over Garnacho.
Gonzalo Montiel is also cut from the team, as are Gio Lo Celso and Claudio Echeverri. Here are the players that have been called up:
Goalkeepers:
Emiliano Martínez (Aston Villa)
Gerónimo Rulli (Olympique Marseille)
Walter Benítez (PSV Eindhoven)
Defenders:
Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)
Cristian Romero (Tottenham Hotspur)
Germán Pezzella (River Plate)
Leoanrdo Balerdi (Olympique Marseille)
Juan Foyth (Villarreal)
Nicolás Otamendi (Benfica)
Facundo Medina (Lens)
Nicolás Tagliafico (Lyon)
Midfielders:
Leandro Paredes (AS Roma)
Enzo Fernández (Chelsea)
Rodrigo De Paul (Atletico Madrid)
Exequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen)
Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool)
Máximo Perrone (Como)
Forwards:
Giuliano Simeone (Atletico Madrid)
Benjamín Domínguez (Bologna)
Thiago Almada (Lyon)
Nicolás González (Juventus)
Nico Paz (Como)
Julián Álvarez (Atletico Madrid)
Lautaro Martínez (Inter)
Santiago Castro (Bologna)
Ángel Correa (Atletico Madrid)
Nicolás Domínguez of Nottingham Forest? A good box to box option imo. Gutted with Dybala’s injury. At the same time excited about Almada taking the no.10 role in the 3 man midfield. Pezzela, Parades selection shows corruption is still alive and kicking within the AFA.
Is this going to be the lineup?…..
Molina cuti otamnedi tagla
DePaul Enzo macca
Alvarez NicoG
Toro
What injury??? trying to make Inter happy or something??
Dont think a real injury but this is good for the future and Messi has to win silverwares with Miami building legacy in USA. Important Concacaf Champions League matches are coming after the break, his NT career is complete, Miami’s not yet.
Regardless of the answer to your questions, why shouldn’t this team stand up to its arch-nemeses? We won the Copa Final without him, we failed in Colombia without him, we lost to Paraguay even with him in the team. So mixed results in recent times irrespective of whether he has been in the team or not. I am not very hopeful of winning these two matches. But these two matches should guide Scaloni to create a Messiless template to tackle big teams like Spain, Germany, Italy, Uruguay, Brazil et al and the team should show its character in Messi’s absence. Our team should not carry the thought with them to the field that “we are without Messi, hence, we are weak”. Let’s see what does Scaloni have up his sleeve, if anything at all.