Cristian Romero will captain Argentina against Chile.

Romero has been picked as the captain for Argentina with both Lionel Messi and Nicolás Otamendi not in the starting eleven. According to Gastón Edul, the Argentina national team coaching staff have picked Cristian Romero as the captain for the World Cup qualifying match against Chile on Thursday.

Lionel Messi is expected to start the match on the bench while Nicolás Otamendi is suspended and will not play.

Lionel Messi will start Argentina’s World Cup qualifying match against Chile on the bench but Nico Paz will be in the starting eleven.

Messi will not start for Argentina but is expected to play. According to Gastón Edul, Messi will play for Argentina but off the bench. He is set to start for Argentina against Colombia next Tuesday.

Nico Paz is going to be in the Argentina starting eleven. Here is the rumored line-up:

Emiliano Martínez; Molina, Romero, Balerdi, Tagliafico; Simeone, De Paul, Palacios, Almada; Nico Paz and Julián Álvarez.

Argentina will play Chile in a World Cup qualifier on Thursday night where it is the first placed team in these South American World Cup qualifiers against the last placed team.

Lionel Scaloni’s team in Chile for Thursday’s match where they will play a 9:00 pm kick off time. This is their second match of the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers, Argentina won the first won 3-0 back in September.

The reigning World Cup champions have a +18 goal difference, having scored 26 goals in the World Cup qualifiers, the most of any team. Lionel Messi leads the goals with six while Chile have scored only nine goals, the second lowest in these qualifiers behind only Peru who have six.

With 31 points, Argentina have already qualified for the 2026 World Cup and are eight points ahead of second placed Ecuador who have 23 points. Chile are in last place with 10 points, tied with Peru but behind on goal difference.

No matter the result, Argentina will remain in first place where as Chile desperately need a win or their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup would be close to coming to an end.

Scaloni is going to make changes to the starting eleven with several players missing due to suspensions and injuries. Giovani Lo Celso and Alexis Mac Allister are out due to injury while Leandro Paredes, Enzo Fernández, Nicolás González and Nicolás Otamendi will miss the match due to yellow card suspension.

Julián Álvarez, Giuliano Simeone and Leonardo Balerdo are all set to start with one of Nico Paz or Thiago Almada set to feature in the starting eleven. Here is the rumored eleven:

Emiliano Martínez; Tagliafico, Balerdi, Romero, Molina; Almada or Paz, De Paul, Palacios, Simeone; Messi and Álvarez

Here are the different kick off times for the match:

Thursday:
United States, Canada: 6:00 pm Pacific
United States, Canada: 9:00 pm Eastern
Argentina: 10:00 pm

Friday:
Ghana: 1:00 am
Scotland, England, Nigeria: 2:00 am
Spain, France, South Africa: 3:00 am
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar: 4:00 am
Iran: 4:30 am
United Arab Emirates, Oman: 5:00 am
Afghanistan: 5:30 am
Pakistan: 6:00 am
India, Sri Lanka: 6:30 am
Nepal: 6:45 am
Bangladesh: 7:00 am
Indonesia, Vietnam: 8:00 am
Malaysia, Singapore, China: 9:00 am
South Korea, Japan: 10:00 am
Australia: 11:00 am
New Zealand: 1:00 pm

Lionel Messi leads all of the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers in goals and Argentina have 11 different goal scorers.

Messi has scored six goals in the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers, the top scorer, one ahead of Miguel Terceros of Bolivia and Raphinha of Brazil, who have five goals each. Messi scored in the first match against Ecuador, two against Peru and a hat trick against Bolivia.

Julián Álvarez, Lautaro Martínez and Nicolás Otamendi have each scored three goals. For Álvarez, he scored against Chile, Bolivia and Brazil. Lautaro scored against Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru. Otamendi had one against Paraguay, one against Brazil and one against Venezuela.

Thiago Almada, Enzo Fernández, Nicolás González and Alexis Mac Allister are on two goals each. Almada scored against Bolivia and Uruguay. Enzo had one against Bolivia and one against Brazil. González had one against Bolivia and one against Colombia. Mac Allister had one against Chile and one against Brazil.

Paulo Dybala, Giuliano Simeone and Nicolás Tagliafico have each scored one goal. Dybala was against Chile, Simeone against Brazil and Tagliafico against Bolivia.

In contrast, their opponent in Thursday’s World Cup qualifying match, Chile, they have only scored nine goals.

Julián Álvarez, Giuliano Simeone and Leonardo Balerdo are set to start for Argentina against Chile.

Argentina national team coach Lionel Scaloni spoke at a press conference on Wednesday and he had stated that there will be changes to the team for the World Cup qualifying match against Chile on Thursday. Scaloni mentioned that Lautaro Martínez will not be playing.

With Nicolás Otamendi suspended due to yellow card accumulation and with no Lautaro Martínez playing, that opens the door for other players. According to Gastón Edul, Julián Álvarez will unsurprisingly be the striker with Giuliano Simeone also in the starting eleven.

With no Nicolás Otamendi, it is Leonardo Balerdi who will start, presumably alongside Cristian Romero. Thiago Almada also has some chances to start as it appears to between himself and Nico Paz in the team.