After the Sunday rest and disconnection given by the coaching staff, the Argentine national team began preparing for next Friday’s game at 4:00 p.m. against the Netherlands for the quarterfinals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. Ángel Di María and Alejandro “Papu” Gómez, who still drag paths inconveniences. Captain Lionel Messi and the rest of the 23 called up trained normally.
Di María and Gómez were the only ones absent in the first 15 minutes open to the press of the practice that took place at the University of Qatar. Both one and the other did not train at the same level as their peers and did work in the gym and kinesiology. Di María has a quadriceps problem that he suffered in the match against Poland and kept him out of the substitute bench for the round of 16 match against Australia.
Papu Gómez, meanwhile, suffered an ankle sprain on Saturday and was replaced by Lisandro Martínez five minutes into the second half. Messi, Argentina’s top scorer with three goals so far in the World Cup, was one of the last to leave the locker room, but quickly joined the group. who began the day with a brief talk with Lionel Scaloni and the rest of the coaching staff.
Then the archers Emiliano Martinez, Geronimo Rulli Y Franco Armani they went to the side to work with Damián Albil and Martín Tocalli and the soccer players were under the orders of the physical trainer Luis Martín to do physical exercises and with the ball. The training ended with tactical work but still without giving indications of the probable team that will start playing on Friday in the impressive Lusail stadium, where Argentina has already faced Saudi Arabia and Mexico.
Scaloni was initially satisfied with the team’s performance while playing with a line of five during the second stage of the match against Australia. But until now he always considered this scheme as a variant during the course of the matches, never from the beginning. In different press conferences, the coach from Santa Fe remarked that the members of the starting lineup could change but without altering the traditional pattern of four defenders, three midfielders and three forwards.
The natural alternative to replace Papu Gómez is, precisely, the player for whom he entered against Australia: Ángel Di María, who despite the day off, trained separately on Sunday trying to speed up his recovery to be able to work alongside his teammates. scaloni He will wait for his evolution to see if he can count on him (everything indicates that he does), and then if he has him to be a starter or a substitute.
If Di María is not there and in case scaloni se lean for another steering wheel, the name of Leandro Paredes sounds again, who was also one of the candidates to replace his Juventus teammate from Italy for the round of 16 match. Another option would be Lisandro Martinez, who entered for Papu Gomez when the DT decided to change the scheme with the party in favor, as it had already done in other matches. It remains to be seen if the coach considers, for the first time in the World Cup, playing with three central defenders from the start.
The team’s schedule is not yet confirmed, but the squad will have four more training sessions before facing the quarterfinal matchup against Louis van Gaal’s team, which will be the sixth between the two countries for a World Cup.
