The Argentine National Team thrashed the United Arab Emirates 5-0 in an attractive friendly match that they played in the afternoon in Abu Dhabi, in the run-up to the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Ángel Di María with a brace, at 25 and 36 minutes , Julián Álvarez, at 17, and Lionel Messi, at 44, all in the first stage and Joaquín Correa, at 14 in the complement, scored the goals of the Albiceleste victory.
The local team tried to surprise with sharp advances, however, it was Argentina that had the best action through Álvarez, who appeared alone in the middle after a pass from Lionel Messi but did not make an impact, and warned that he was a threat despite How hard was it to dig deep?
With the passing of the minutes, the team led by coach Lionel Scaloni maintained control of the ball and with a counterattack opened the scoring: Messi escaped hand in hand with the goalkeeper from three quarters of the field and touched it in the middle so that Álvarez sign 1-0.
The goal from the Manchester City striker unlocked the game and the Argentine team unleashed a gale of goals in 10 minutes that featured Di María with his personal double: after a cross from Marcos Acuña, “Fideo” grabbed her by volleyed and put the ball against the right post of Khalid Eisa, later, the Juventus player received in the area, dribbled past two defenders, the goalkeeper and defined with an empty goal to establish the 3-0 win.
In the agony of the first stage, the national team stretched the figures with a great goal from their emblem Messi, who received on the edge of the area, hit a hook, with which he left all his rivals on the road and defined a right cross to the angle to sentence the 4-0.
Already in the complement, Scaloni had four modifications so as not to take risks in the face of the World Cup. They were brought in by footballers with defensive characteristics, which led the team to be more compact and costly in the first minutes, in which the United Arab Emirates was close to discounting with a powerful shot from Harib Abdalla Suhail that crashed off the crossbar .
Argentina passed the suffocation imposed by the local and about fifteen minutes later put the story 5-0 after a great individual maneuver by Rodrigo De Paul, who assisted Correa to define crossed with the complicity of a deflection.
The match continued its course, Messi with a free kick was close to extending the result, while Ali Saleh put the national team in trouble when he defined the cross but “Dibu” Martínez avoided the goal on pure reflex, and the rebound hit him again Saleh, who played it for Caio Canedo, who finished off and Germán Pezzella saved on the line.
formations
0 UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Khalid Eisa; Khaled Ebraheim Helal, Khalifa Al Hammadi, Alhusein Saleh, Shanin Abdulrahman; Abdullah Salmeen, Ali Salmeen, Abdalla Ramadan, Harid Abdalla; Caio Canedo, Ali Mabkhout. DT: Rodolfo Arruabarrena.
5 ARGENTINA: Martinez; Foyth, Otamendi, L. Martinez, Acuña; DePaul, Paredes, MacAllister; Messi, J. Alvarez, Di Maria. DT: Lionel Scaloni.
Stadium: Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium. Referee: Ibrahim Nour El-Din (Egypt). VAR: Majed Alshamrani (Saudi Arabia). Goals: 17m Álvarez (A), 25m Di María (A), 36m Di María (A), 44m Messi (A); 59m Strap (A). Changes: 46m Molina by Di María (A), G. Montiel by Mac Allister (A), Pezzella by Otamendi (A), Correa by Acuña (A), Lima by Al Hajeri (UAE), Nader by Al Balushi (UAE); 50m E. Fernández by Álvarez (A); 69m Jamil by Saleh (UAE), Rashid by Hamad (UAE); 75m G. Rodríguez for Paredes (A), A. Saleh for Suhail (UAE), A.Haikal for Al Dhanhani (UAE).