Nicolás Tagliafico spoke about the Argentina national team during the World Cup qualifiers and the penalty kick against Ecuador.
Tagliafico was part of a controversial call during Argentina’s 1-0 loss against Ecuador in the World Cup qualifiers. The Argentine won a header in the air but the referee went to VAR and awarded Ecuador a penalty kick. Speaking to the media after the match, here is what Tagliafico had to say about the penalty call:
“It’s a play where Preciado fights for the ball with Nico González and, at that moment, it’s up in the air. That’s when I jumped from my position: he raised his arm, won the position, and headed the ball. Then, obviously, with the vehemence that Preciado was coming at me, I hit him with my forearm. In the end, it was a totally normal duel.”
The Argentine also spoke about how the team has been doing:
“We have been doing a great job for a long time. Despite this setback, we have been doing very well throughout the process.
“Keeping the desire to win intact is one of the group’s greatest characteristics.”
Good to see some great posts as we look forward to 2026. Less than a year left. There are lot of thoughts, will try to address…
First and foremost, reflecting back on 2022 win.
1. You need luck on your side to win something major like that. We did have it on our side. Whether we will have it 2 times in a row, to be seen.
2. I still feel we got lucky with Dibu. Armani’s covid forced Scaloni to take the decision. Same is true for Cuti. Overall, I feel when it comes to selection Scaloni and team got a little lucky as some of the circumstances forced him to take decision. He may not get forced this time, he has to take his decisions, is he capable of it?
3. A few players stepped up like we could not even think before the start of WC. Macallister, Enzo, Julian just popped from nowhere and became pillars of the team. Who will it be this time?
4. We qualified so early and without any drama. However, we failed to prepare for the future. The coaches know better, but I feel we had tremendous opportunity to prepare for future and we missed it.
My list of probable breakout stars to watch out are Equi Fernández, Giay(should scaloni decide to test him), Soule, anselmino, bounanotte and *echeverri. Chances of my predictions being wrong are high but am optimistic.
Almada has cemented his position, Nico Paz will eventually gel with the NT, manstatuono needs to take a back seat and work some few basics
Regarding the comparison between Yamal and some of our prodigies, something being constantly repeated by quite many fellow members, just my humble opinion:
First of all, a young talent has to be developed properly to justify his potential to world class level, something that i guess we all agree.
A very important factor that is not being mentioned is that Yamal has much more opportinities and support to develop himself than our young talents. Yamal started from Barcelona youth academies and when they saw his talent they fully supported him to grow as a player in order to get to the senior team. Subsequently, when he entered Barcelona main team, he continued to get support and plenty opportunities to become one of Barcelonas main stars.
On the other hand, our young stars, Echeveri and Mastantuono, had to travel from the other side of the world, to play in a team in a different country, another continent, without knowing the language, different football philosophies, different culrure etc.
Imagine if South America had the financial superiority to get every talented player from around the world! Imagine if Yamal had to travel to Argentina to play for River, Boca or any other team, honestly, do you believe that he would have made the same impact? I really doubt and still, we are hammering our young stars, for the lack of playing time and even their performances during their limited chances. Well, in my opinion the comparison therefore doesn’t stand right and fair.
Moreover, our team had a bad performance and we lost. I agree that we have flaws in some departments, like any other team, but i remind you that we finished at top in qualifiers with 9 points difference than the second team, with most goals scored and second best defence while Brazil finished 5th and if it was for the old format, Brazil wouldn’t have qualified aitomatically.
What Argentina has achieved in the last five years, there is no other team did that in the past. Argentina won every trophy available while Spain they might have won wc 2010 and back to back euros but they didn’t win supercup back then. In addition, argentina equalized and set new records. We equalized Italy’s record 37 consecutive games unbeaten and as a far as i remember, there is no other team with only 6 loses in a span of 5 years.
Thank God, we made history and created a new legend and God willing this dynasty will continue as long as it can take!
God bless everyone!
Waveride, good writeup and nice to see you again in the forum.
You said Echeverri and Masta have come to a new environment which they need sometime to get settled. I think that is not the case at all. 20 or 30 years ago when young Argentine players switched to Europe they used to instantly go to the lineups and make very good perfermances from the start. Javier Saviola and Aimar come to Spain and became starters and good performers for their teams from the very beginning. Even Lucas Martin Castroman, whom I think many of the friends here don’t remember or know about, who wasn’t a talented player assisted two goals in his first game for Lazio against Real Madrid in the CL in 2001.
I think the problem is the quality of the young players coming from Argentina. Echeverri has a high chance of getting into the lineup very soon, but Masta will have a very hard time at Madrid. The guy has turned into the laughing stock of the football fans around the world. He was very bad in the club world cup. Did nothing in La Liga. And even worse in the national team.
Both Echeverri and Mastantuono didn’t impress me .Though Mastantuono was more eye-catching in riverplate .
Actually even Nico paz his performance in national team was still far from that of his club in serie A.
I truely believe at the moment the above three players are overestimated. That’s why scaloni never gave paz enough playing time not to say Echeverri. However I think they surely will improve in future but not 2026 world cup .
Matias Soule and Almada are the players really catch my eye .The other is Maher Carrizo .
mastantuono ‘s problems are
1, One leg player
2, no one on one dribble
3, playing as a winger but doesn’t know how to cooperate with RB
4, very easy to lose ball possession
Echeverri ‘s
1, Slow
2, physically weak
Nico paz ‘s
1, clumsy at first touch
2, not that good at dribbling
3, typically small team attack midfield
he remind me of de Paul in udinese .capable of playing as an attacking midfield in udinese but not At Madrid
Our Current Best lineup.
—————-EMI—————
Molina-Cuti—-Licha-Tagli
————Enzo-Maca———
—-PAZ/Sim————-Almada
———-Messi-Alvarez——
We were missing some of these players in the last game. Not too worried.
‐————Dibu
Foyth—Romero—Senesi–Gonzalez
————–Enzo
—Soule———–Mcallister
Messi—————–Almada
————–Alvarez
Alot will change especially with the likes of equi Fernández, anselmino coming to the limelight.
As some fans here already mentioned it has been over 60 years since a team won back to back WC’s. Will Argentina stand a chance to do that in 2026? Let’s look at from both a negative and positive point of view.
Scaloni has stuck with the core of the team that won the last 4 finals. Experience counts in tournaments, but how long can you continue with aging players against young, talented and hungry teams? Time will catch up with everybody, even Messi. Our beloved number 10 still has flashes of brilliance, gives defence splitting passes and keeps his cool in front of goal. Seven of eight games in a month will however be too much to ask. Otamendi almost costs us the last WC final and he ain’t getting younger. Still a beast in the air but against fast paced attackers he is a liability. Paredes always was a slow player and back in Argentina will not make him better. De Paul, Tagliafico, Acuna are all past their prime. Three months before the WC 2018 Argentina played Spain. We lost 6-1 with aging players like Mascherano and Biglia in midfield.
The finalissima 2026 will be against Spain and again 3 months before the WC starts. Do we look forward to duels between Yamine Lamal and Tagliafico or Williams and Molina or Montiel? I do not. We could be in for another big loss. That could be a blow for our confidence.
Upfront we have Alvarez who currently lack form, but always works hard and is a real asset. Lautaro can be a match winner or go unnoticed. In the CL final he was nowhere to be seen and yesterday against Ecuador he did not have a single shot on goal. It is all or nothing with Lautaro these days. Of course, he depends on good service. Our talented youngsters shine in Argentina, but once in Europe they go unnoticed. Echeverri sat on the bench at City for months and played very few full games for them. Mastantuono was hailed as the new big player from Argentina, but he is nowhere near the level of Yamal. Although he has good vision of the game, he cannot dribble pas players with his ‘hard’ feet. I won’t be surprised if he spends a lot of time on the bench if everybody is fit at Real.
On the upside we have world class midfielders in Enzo and MacAllister. Almada is also getting better every year. If Lisandro Martinez recovers he can play 5, as he did often with Ajax. Varela, Paz, Varela, Equi Fernandez can all be back-ups, but they need to be called and put in the line-up in October (USA and November (Angola and India). At the back we desperately need new blood. Balerdi has been tested several times and seems to fit. Foyth is always a gamble as he is made of glass. Lomonaco has been called only once and did not play. Senesi did not get much time either. However, the biggest problems are wingbacks. Nuno Mendes is considered the best left back in the world, we have no one even close. On the right side Hakimi (Morocco) and Dumfries (Netherlands) are considered top plays (both in FIFA list for golden ball). Molina? On the bench at Atletico. He can run like crazy, but defensively and tactically not very good. Montiel? Back to Argentina after failing to impress in Europe. Maffeo was often mentioned, but never tried. Giay has not been given playing time yet. With 4 games left in 2025, Scaloni and staff SHOULD now really try new players. Don’t stick with the old guard. Insert new blood now! Try the following players against Puerto Rico: Soler, Lomonaco, Giay, Equi Fernandez, Paz, Soulé and maybe even Montoro or Carrizo.
I always said overconfidence in these old players will be the team’s downfall. At this point Argentina has plenty of midfield option but we are still restricted to DePaul and paredes whose levels are declining. Calling back acuna and montiel killed my confidence in this team. Realistically Argentina won’t win 2026 world cup.
It’s okay to lose now, we can understand and analyse our problems before going to the WC.
Players will accept that, coach can take decisions to improve the team.
1. Messi is still the soul of the team. He can still make difference. Opposite team will be cautious when he’s there.
2. Cuti, Enzo and Alvarez, the core didn’t played/started, Macca is not fully fit, Almada the new NT star was also not fit.
3. The player who can improve our defense, Licha is not fit, hopefully he will be back soon.
4. Depaul is not the same ‘ team engine’ as before. New Engine should be there. Equi is the one ticks all the boxes.
5. New players should emerge. Almada, Alvarez and Messi would be the front 3. Nico and Simeone as backups. I wish Garnacho, Mastantuano, or Soule turn to a world class mode before the WC.
6. Tagliafico has the heart but Acuna is almost done. If Soler can get regular minutes in EPL? We will be fine. Right back is worst now. Simeone killed Molina. He always killed our players. Giay is far now. Someone cant be trusted defensively. A new findings needed but experienced is better
Nico Gonzalez is disaster soule is much better than him
The level of negativity from some of you is baffling. This team finished 1st in qualification with almost 10 points ahead of a second place team. they are playing away in a meaningless game, And you guys are talking about disaster? No identity? my goodness!
I swear some fans are so damn delusional.
This was a game to forget for Balerdi. The guy should be approaching his prime, he’s 26, played for Boca, Dortmund and Marseille and yet he was far from solid. Senesi has been good so far this season, should he be looked at?
De Paul, however is more of a worry, he is not the same player anymore. Even at Copa America 24 he had already started showing signs of decline, but now it is more pronounced. It is in part because he set such high standards of intensity and dynamism for himself and is no longer showing it. I would still have him in the team but on the bench now. If Equi has a good season at Leverkusen I would want to see Equi, Mac and Enzo midfield tried.
Not much we can do about fullback positions, the few options that are viable are probably not ready yet, e.g. Soler, Giay, etc.
We dropped in FIFA rankings to the 3rd spot and it is a blessing in disguise, less pressure on us.
Good points bro , de Paul is embarrassing us rolling the floor every little touch what I will add is
We must pray nothing happens to cuti Romero, thiago almada and julian alvarez they are most important players in our team plus i’m confident one of enzo Barrenechea or equi Fernandez will break into the our starting midfielder, i love see this midfielder in world Cup Equi, macca , Enzo Fernandez and almada as free role playing behind messi and julian alvarez
The red card for Otamendi is a not a good news for us as he is going to miss out first World Cup group match. However, it can be a blessing in disguise if other central defenders are in good shape like Romero, Lisandro, Balerdi. Balerdi is good in possession. His dribbling is good. But he is particularly good in hasty clearances and distribution. Still he is the future and better than Pezzella. Looking forward to see Anselmino in the October matches. Other than Paredes and Tagliafico nobody showed any hunger or eagerness to prove a point. De Paul was a waste. Mastantuano is too casual. No doubt he has talent but you cannot be casual on the field. When you are passing the ball towards the defence you need to 100% ensure that an Argentine is in the receiving end. Let me not even talk about the Montiel, MacAlister, Alvarez and Nico. However, I still believe the referee was at a fault with his decision. The red card was justified but not the penalty. The hand positions were quite correct. If the heads won’t have collided, the hand positions would not have drawn the attention of the referee.
Scaloni should wake up to the reality. Italy (1934 and 1938) and Brazil (1958 and 1962), who achieved the rare feat of winning the cup twice successively had a younger side in their second lifting of the trophy. Ecuador’s strategy of long overhead balls worked because of the defenders who are neither getting any taller nor getting youner.
What is waiting for Argentina in 2026 is exactly what happened to former champions liks France, Italy, Spain, and Germany in 2002, 2010, 2014, and 2018 respectively. This team has no identity, has no hunger anymore, has a lot of old and finished players, and on top of that the coach never trusts young players. If Spain was what was playing vs Argentina last night the result would have been way worse than the 2017 one. Good luck!