Luciano VIETTO of Atletico Madrid is edging closer to a loan move to Sporting CP.
According to reports, the former Racing Club and Villarreal man could make a move to Portugal in the January transfer window. A Bola in Portugal is reporting that both Atletico and Sporting CP are close to a deal which would see VIETTO join them until the end of the season with Sporting also working on a 10 million purchase option in the summer.
VIETTO joined Villarreal from Racing Club in the summer of 2014 and impressed scoring 12 goals in 32 league matches for the yellow submarines. He joined Diego SIMEONE’s Atletico Madrid in 2015 but failed to impress where he spent the 2016-2017 season on loan at Sevilla.
Lionel MESSI once more continues to shine in an El Clasico match.
Days after Cristiano RONALDO’s comments about being the best player in the world, Lionel MESSI outshone the Portuguese in the invetible one on one comparison battle between the two. The little number 10 scored and assisted (a ridiculous one at that) in FC Barcelona’s 3-0 win against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeau.
A shaky first half for the Catalan’s saw Real Madrid score through Cristiano RONALDO but the goal was rightly called off due to offside. The second half was an entirely different match. While being man marked by Mateo Kovacic (Croatian international who is in Argentina’s 2018 FIFA World Cup group), the man marking left Ivan RAKITIC (fellow Croat) run freely through the middle of the pitch as he slid a pass to Sergi ROBERTO who then assisted Luis SUAREZ for Barcelona’s first goal.
Ten minutes after the opening goal, Real Madrid’s CARVAJAL stopped a shot from going in with his hand and a penalty was awarded. Up stepped Lionel MESSI who made no mistake, scoring an El Clasico 25th goal. The third goal was MESSI taking MARCELO to the cleaners. With one shoe on and the other on the ground, Lionel dribble through MARCELONA before cutting it back to Aleix VIDAL for the third goal.
Lionel Messi assists in an El Clasico without a shoe.
With his goal against Madrid, MESSI becomes the all time goal scorer for a single European club (in the Top 5 leagues) surpassing Gerd MULLER as Lionel is now on 526 goals.
The past 12 months were an absolutely roller coaster for the Argentina National Team and it’s time to look back at Argentina’s 2017 from a numbers perspective.
Argentina’s 2017 consisted of a total of 10 matches played. Here’s the breakdown in numbers:
Total coaches: 2
Edgardo BAUZA
Jorge SAMPAOLI
Number of players who took part in matches: 50
Augustin MARCHESIN: 1
Alejandro GOMEZ: 4
Angel CORREA: 1
Angel DI MARIA: 10
Cristian PAVON: 2
Dario BENEDETTO: 4
Diego PEROTTI: 2
Eduardo SALVIO: 3
Emanuel MAMMANA: 2
Emiliano INSUA: 1
Emiliano RIGONI: 3
Emmanuel MAS: 1
Enzo PEREZ: 5
Ever BANEGA: 8
Facundo RONCAGLIA: 2
Federico FAZIO: 4
Fernando BELLUSCHI: 1
Fernando GAGO: 1
Gabriel MERCADO: 5
German PEZZELLA: 2
Giovani LO CELSO: 2
Gonzalo HIGUAIN: 2
Guido PIZARRO: 3
Guido RODRIGUEZ: 1
Ignacio FERNANDEZ: 1
Javier MASCHERANO: 6
Javier PASTORE: 2
Joaquin CORREA: 3
Jonathan MAIDANA: 1
Jose LUIS GOMEZ: 1
Lautaro ACOSTA: 2
Leandro PAREDES: 2
Lionel MESSI: 7
Lucas ALARIO: 1
Lucas BIGLIA: 6
Lucas PRATTO: 1
Manuel LANZINI: 2
Marcos ACUNA: 7
Marcos ROJO: 2
Mateo MUSACCHIO: 2
Matias CARUZZO: 1
Matias KRANVITTER: 1
Mauro ICARDI: 3
Nahuel GUZMAN: 1
Nicolas OTAMENDI: 8
Nicolas TAGLIAFICO: 1
Paulo DYBALA: 6
Ramiro FUNES MORI: 1
Sergio AGUERO: 4
Sergio ROMERO: 8
Player with most matches:
Angel DI MARIA (10 appearances in 10 matches)
Argentina’s 2017 Match Record
World Cup Qualifying matches: 6
Friendly matches: 4
Matches won: 5
Matches drawn: 3
Matches lost: 2
Biggest win: 6-0 vs. Singapore
Biggest loss: 2-0 vs. Bolivia, 4-2 loss vs. Nigeria
Argentina World Cup Qualifying Match Record
Matches won in World Cup Qualifiers: 2
Matches drawn in World Cup Qualifiers: 3
Matches lost in World Cup Qualifiers: 1
Argentina Friendly Match Record
Matches won in Friendly matches: 3
Matches drawn in Friendly matches: 0
Matches lost in Friendly matches: 1
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: Argentina sealed 2018 World Cup qualification vs. Ecuador
Goals
Total goals scored: 15
Total goals let in: 8
Goals scored in World Cup Qualifiers: 5
Goals let in World Cup Qualifiers: 4
Goals scored in Friendly matches: 10
Goals let in Friendly matches: 4
Most goals scored in a match: 6
Most goals let in a match: 4
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: A 6-0 victory vs. Singapore was Argentina’s biggest scoreline of the year.
Argentina’s 2017 consisted of having 10 different goal scorers (11 if you count an own goal). The top scorer? Lionel MESSI. The top scorer in World Cup Qualifying? Lionel MESSI. Players to score more than one goal? Lionel MESSI and Sergio AGUERO.
Argentina’s 2017 Year in Review: Lionel Messi scored 4 goals for Argentina this year.
We will be having our in depth Argentina 2017 Year in Review in the next few days where we will go in detail discussing all the changes which happened surrounding the Argentina National Team this past year.
Reports are emerging that Freiburg and Ajax are interested in signing Argentina international Nicolas TAGLIAFICO.
A report by German media outlet Kicker states that Independiente have received an offer for their captain with a possible transfer being done in the upcoming transfer window in January. The offer is reportedly in the region of 3 million.
Nicolas TAGLIAFICO linked to Freiburg
“Freiburg pointing to an Argentine initernational: They’ve made an offer worth 3 million Euro’s for Nicolas TAGLIAFICO.”
However, Freiburg aren’t the only club rumored to be interested in signing the 25 year old. Ajax of the Netherlands have also shown interest in signing the defender. At the moment, it remains to be seen whether or not Independiente will sell their star player.
Javier MASCHERANO will be joining Chinese club Hebei Fortune.
The midfielder turned defender’s move to Hebei Fortune has been confirmed. According to several reports, an agreement has been reached between FC Barcelona and MASCHERANO’s agent. Jefecito would join the Chinese club in January.
Javier will join fellow Argentinian Ezequiel LAVEZZI at the club with coach Manuel PELLEGRINI. Argentina’s number 14 first joined the Catalan club back in summer 2010 following a move from English Premier League club Liverpool. Amassing over 300 matches for Barcelona, Masche managed to score one goal throughout his career in Spain. Since joining them in 2010, he has won no less than 17 trophies with the Catalan’s (of those 17 came a treble back in 2015).
