Lionel Scaloni, coach of the Argentine national team, detailed this Thursday, five months after the title, the tactical approach he used in the 2022 Qatar World Cup final against France. In a video with the official FIFA channel, the DT explained how he thought about the match against the defenders of the crown in the final played on December 18 at the Lusail stadium in Qatar.
FIFA recovered the paper that Scaloni wrote in his own handwriting and then pasted it in the locker room for the previous talk and gave it to the coach for the interview. “Yes, it’s my handwriting. My ugly handwriting, but I like to write it like this, of course, with the numbers, and well the explanations varied based on the parties, but roughly I think it’s a good sign of what we thought could be the game”, Scaloni confirmed at the start of the “Masterclass”, as FIFA called it.
“It’s not very difficult to understand what was done either. The important thing was to capture it on the field because one can have a thousand ideas and then it doesn’t come out on the field,” he added, before starting with the details. “We were clear from the moment we had to play with France, after having passed Morocco, that Di María was going to play on the left. We didn’t tell them until an hour before the game and I think that was a little the key because we gave absolutely no advantage to anyone who knows it. Nowadays everything is known and perhaps this could be counterproductive, “said the driver of La Scaloneta.
On the defensive side, Scaloni specified that Alexis Mac Allister was the one in charge of Antoine Griezmann and in the right sector both Nahuel Molina and Rodrigo De Paul had to keep an eye on Kylian Mbappé.
The brand of the French figure had a separate description for what it represents the footballer who scored the three goals for his team in the final. “The first thing that had to be done was to be very close, very close and that the depth of the last, if the ball went behind his back, there yes that ‘Cuti’ (Romero) would be attentive. But the idea was that when Mbappé received he would have one or two players nearby. You don’t have to give these players a meter, because in the end he received a few times from the front and in those that he had, he hurt us, “he lamented.
About the closing, Scaloni described the play of the goal of Ángel Di María that meant the partial 2-0 in the first half. “Julián (Álvarez) was aware of the central midfielder, leaving Leo a little more free and in that play it was clear because it was a ball from Nahuel (Molina) to Alexis, that Alexis was focused, almost without looking he sees Leo (Messi ) from behind, Julián moves out and Ángel appears on the other free side, which was more or less what we were looking for”, he highlighted.
The colorful fragment of the talk with FIFA was that the interviewer offered the role to Scaloni but the coach refused and assured: “No, I’m very clear about this.”
