Argentina – United Arab Emirates: Lionel Messi’s goal and Di María’s festival in the team’s win in the last friendly before the World Cup

The Argentine national team he fulfilled everything he proposed in the last game he played before traveling to Qatar to play the world Cup: He got a massive win, tried variants and left without any of his players suffering injuries that put his presence at stake. It was a comfortable 5-0 win over the United Arab Emiratesdirected by Rodolfo Arruabarrenain which they marked Julian Alvarez, angel di maria in duplicate and Lionel Messi about the end of the first half, so that later Joaquin Correa gave the final thrust in the complement.

At halftime it was learned who will keep the Flea jacket at the end of the match: midfielder Abdalla Ramadan, who went to consult number 10 and had the go-ahead, which he made known with his smile upon entering the locker room.

The midfielder, who performed well in this last game before the World Cup, spoke about the expectations of the squad before the ecumenical football event: “We always said that the World Cup has to be whenever, and aiming at that we always improved. We arrived at a great moment, but you can always continue to grow. We have a lot of anxiety.”

Mission accomplished. In a match in which the Argentine team dominated as expected, he thrashed the United Arab Emirates 5-0 in Abu Dhabi and confirmed the good impressions ahead of the World Cup, six days before the debut against Saudi Arabia.

A defensive error by Foyth left Ali Saleh one on one with the Argentina goalkeeper, who made a great save, but on the rebound Saleh played for Caio Canedo, but even in that situation Germán Pezzella arrived just in time to keep the 5 -0 for the Albiceleste.

A foul on Joaquín Correa once again gave La Pulga the opportunity to add another goal from a free kick, but his shot went very close to Eisa’s right post.

To protect him for the duel against Saudi Arabia, the coach decides to remove Leandro Paredes, who will be replaced by Guido Rodríguez.

Nahuel Molina stole a ball in the opposite half and left it for La Pulga to hit from the right and finish off, but his shot went too high.

As La Pulga stepped up to take a corner, supporters who got to see him up close showed their admiration by making a lot of noise, even if the play ended in a clearance by an Emirati defender.

Rodrigo De Paul made a very good drive through the middle and assisted Joaquín Correa, who kicked uncomfortably but got into the Emirati goal anyway for Argentina 5-0.

The referee showed the Manchester United centre-back his first yellow card of the match after he protested a foul on Khalifa Mubarak.

Julián Álvarez is replaced by Enzo Fernández as soon as the second half begins, although in principle it would not be the last of the modifications that Scaloni could make.

In a quick succession of events, first Abdulla Suhail hits Martínez’s crossbar, and later Abdalla Ramadan forced “Dibu” to make a save by two shots from outside the box.

Scaloni’s team comes out with numerous changes to the pitch. Gonzalo Montiel, Germán Pezzella, Joaquín Correa and Nahuel Molina replace Ángel Di María, Nicolás Otamendi, Marcos Acuña and Alexis Mac Allister.

Giovani Lo Celso was notably absent from Scaloni’s list for Qatar, due to the muscle detachment he suffered with two weeks to go before his debut against Saudi Arabia. Being a pillar of the selected midfield, the players decided to support him by lining up in the preview with a cloth that reads “Gio, #TodosJuntos”.

Thanks to goals from Julián Álvarez, Ángel Di María and Lionel Messi, the Argentine team leaves at halftime with a very comfortable 4-0 lead over the United Arab Emirates. Many changes are expected to go out and play the plugin.

A great combined play in three quarters of the field ended at the feet of Messi, who faked his mark and defined a right cross to make it 4-0 near the end of the first half.

Di María, the team’s best player in the first half, found the number 10 unmarked and threw a cross into the area that he managed to connect with a header, but not enough to fool Eisa, who kept the ball.

De Paul changed front for Mac Allister, the midfielder saw Di María free inside the area and Fideo left two defenders and the goalkeeper on the ground before defining without resistance, signing the selection 3-0.

The Argentine pressure is also noticeable in the defense of the United Arab Emirates, as was felt by goalkeeper Eisa, who almost lost the ball in a clearance that Álvarez interrupted. Luckily for him, the ball was lost on the goal kick.

De Paul was fouled on the edge of the box, which presented a great opportunity for La Pulga to add to the scoreboard, but his shot went just over the crossbar.

In the best moment of the national team, Fideo retaliated with a great goal, volleying in a cross from Acuña from the left. The shot hit the right post of Eisa, who remained motionless, before getting into the goal to make it 2-0.

The goal served to embolden the team, which comes out with much more determination in attack. Now, Di María sent a cross past from the right that Mac Allister connected, but not with enough precision for the shot to go on target; then Álvarez dropped the ball very well and finished off with his left foot, but the shot was bitten.

A great long ball from Di María reached Messi, who left with only the goalkeeper to beat but decided to play towards the middle with Julián Álvarez, who defined before the departure of Khalid Eisa to score 1-0.

Arruabarrena’s team is forcing the team to go back with the ball and seek to play long to gain meters, although later near their area they are also strong in defense.

It shows in the movements of the selected players that there are barely six days left for the debut against Saudi Arabia in Qatar; The rhythm of the game for the moment is patient and slow, maintaining possession and looking for some uncheck near the area.

Messi moves and the referee starts the match between the Argentine team and the team led by Rodolfo Arruabarrena.

Accompanied by an elaborate ceremony where the shirts of the two countries were shown, Argentina and the United Arab Emirates are already on the field of play to play the friendly. The Albiceleste will go today with their purple shirt.

Both selected have already returned to the locker room to finalize details before the last game of the Albiceleste starts before the start of the World Cup.

When Lionel Messi was taking his first steps on the pitch for the warm-up, a fan sneaked in and went to hug him, but was stopped just in time by security guards. It is hoped that she will not be the first to try.

The goalkeeper of the national team is practicing penalties with his colleagues, Franco Armani, Gerónimo Rulli and the sparring partner Federico Gomes Gerth, on the playing field of the Mohammed Bin Zayed stadium.

The squads of both teams are already on the pitch to warm up prior to the match.

As precautionary measures for not being 100% physically, Lionel Scaloni decided that Alejandro “Papu” Gómez, Cristian Romero and Paulo Dybala will not be part of the squad for today’s game.

El equipo que comanda Rodolfo Arruabarrena formará with Khalid Eisa; Hamdan Abdulrahman, Khalifa Alhammadi, Abdalla Saleh and Ali Al-Dhanhani; Abdulla Hamad, Ali Salmin, Abdalla Ramadan and Hareb Abdullah Suhail; Ali Mabkhout and Caio Canedo

The fans who arrive around the Mohamed Bin Zayed Stadium, both Argentine and foreign, are dying to get the shirt that the Argentine team will wear in Qatar, with the illusion that it can acquire a lot of meaning.

The versatile defender returns to start with the Argentine team for the first time in more than a year, the last time being that 1-1 draw against Chile in June 2021, prior to the Copa América in which he was not finally selected. Since then he has played minutes in the next game against Colombia, in the last Qualifying game against Ecuador and in the friendly against Estonia this year, but he never played more than 25 minutes in each of those games.

There is a lot of expectation for the last game of Lionel Scaloni’s team before the World Cup in Qatar among the fans, which include not only Argentines, but also the important community from India and Bangladesh, especially from the state of Kerala, which developed deep roots. for the Albiceleste.

In the absence of official communication, these will be the eleven footballers who will start the last friendly match of the Argentine national team before their participation in Qatar 2022: Emiliano Martínez; Juan Foyth, Nicolás Otamendi, Lisandro Martínez, Marcos Acuña; Rodrigo DePaul, Leandro Paredes, Alexis MacAllister; Lionel Messi, Julian Alvarez, Angel Di Maria.

Through a post on social networks, the AFA confirmed who will be in charge of directing the last friendly match before Qatar 2022. The main referee will be Ibrahim Nour El-Din and there will be video assistance (VAR).

The friendly match between the Arab team and Argentina is part of an agreement that the AFA signed with the Abu Dhabi Sports Council, and which, in addition to including the concentration of the national team in that place, also brings together the so-called Argentine Super Cup. It is about a match to be played in that same city in January 2023 (and that will be repeated for three years) between two Argentine soccer champions. Most likely, the first edition will be disputed by Boca and Racing.