Tottenham earned a 2-1 away win against Aston Villa on Sunday, a result that helps them move out of the relegation zone in the Premier League.
Emiliano Martínez started in goal for Aston Villa and played the full match. The home side pushed late in the game, and Emiliano Buendía found the net in the final minute. The midfielder connected with a diagonal cross and headed the ball in to reduce the deficit, but it was not enough to change the outcome.
Meanwhile, Cristian Romero was unavailable for Tottenham due to injury and did not feature in the match.
Despite the defeat, Aston Villa remain in the positions that qualify for the UEFA Champions League, while Tottenham take an important step in their fight to stay in the top flight.
Bayern vs Psg game ruined by clear robbery. The Portuguese referee favored his fellow Portuguese players.
As Julian Alvarez I hope simeone allows him to rest for the remaining matches to arrive fresh at the tournament
I don’t think Llorente played any part of benching Molina rather than Cholo’s stupid coaching system for Argentine players! If even Messi play for Cholo he will bench him too. Show me one player he took in Atletico and made them better except from his son! He took our best player from last season and made him bench warmer! Llorente can’t even make two good pass just psychical and hard worker and that’s what Atletico is all about now. As for playing World Cup it’s more about preparation then players name if you want example then go watch last World Cup final where Dembele was subbed off in first half I think so it’s all about preparation and planning . As long as our players are fit we will compete.
With the World Cup approaching and Scaloni appearing close to finalising his 26-man squad based on his recent friendly selections (barring injuries and a couple of open spots), I personally would approach games differently depending on the opposition. Against weaker teams, I would go with a more attacking setup, but against stronger and more youthful sides like France, England, Portugal, or Spain, I would prefer a more compact and defensively solid structure
Emi
Molina Romero Licha Tagliafico
Enzo MacAllister Barco
Messi
Lautaro Julian
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Emi
Molina Romero Senesi Licha Tagliafico
Enzo MacAllister Barco
Messi Julian
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With Messi not realistically playing 90 minutes across 7–8 games in a month at the World Cup, Nico Paz should be his rotational option for Leo,
That said, Argentina’s real concerns are definitely flanks, our wingers and and full-backs. Nico González and G.Simeone are good squad options, but more impact substitutes. Nico.G is good when we need a goal and Giuliano when defending a lead.
However, I get nightmares when imagining our defensively weak and old full backs in Montiel, Molina, Tagliafico and Acuña having to deal with fast, direct wingers like Mbappe, Olise, Yamal. Dembele, Doku … Scaloni really dropped the ball and failed to capitalize on a easy qualifying campaign by not testing new players in these positions!
Molina or Montiel is not old at all and Montiel and Tagliafico are great defensively, Montiel shoot prime Neymar down in a Copa America final, way harder task than any of those players above.
Molina is 28 years old, in his prime still. Have you seen his performance vs Valencia the other day? He was MOTM. Montiel is 29, it is not clear if him playing at River is going to be an issue. Acuna has improved lately but he’s on the wrong side of 30 and overall I prefer we don’t take him. Taglia is older but still solid.
But I don’t get the argument of Scaloni and co supposedly dropping the ball. Do we have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to the fullback positions? Scaloni tried Medina, Esquivel, Ortega at LB, Kevin Mac Allister and Giay for RB, all of them seem lacking something. The only question mark is why Bernabei was never called.
Same with prolific wingers, we don’t have a whole lot right now, other than Soule (I wish he was called), Simeone and Nico Gonzalez. Garnacho barely plays for Chelsea and does not deserve it. Against a team with elite wingers we can try a 4-4-2 with Nico G and Simeone helping our fullbacks by tracking back, both are hard working and can help Molina and Tagliafico a lot.
Overall, it is not the job of a national team to develop players, they are either available or not.
I agree we don’t have too many options on the flanks, whether at full-backs or wingers N.Molina, even though extremely inconsistent, is still better offensively, but he’s had a very poor overall season and was benched by Marcos Llorente, a makeshift RB. Defensively, he has always been a liability, and with Leo Messi on the right, he always needs a winger who tracks back to double up against opposing wingers. Montiel and Acuna no idea how they’re doing in the domestic leagueand Tagliafico, even though a workhorse, is aging. However we definitely need a fast and competent LB, and maybe that is V.Barco. But against world class wingers from top teams, our flanks will be our biggest weakness.
Molina is the best RB we have, and despite his defensive limitations, he’s pretty good. Yes, Llorente benched him but mostly in the first half of the season, lately both are playing in rotation. Messi no longer plays on the right for us, he tends to hand out in the centre or roam all over. Regardless, we have what we have for the fullbacks, it is not like other, significantly better options were discarded or never tried. In any case, against elite wingers any good fullbacks would struggle. You think Nuno Mendes is not going to work hard to contain Lamine Yamal or Hakimi if he had to play against his teammate Khvicha Kvaratskhelia? World class wingers would create problems even to the best fullbacks out there.