The expectation increases for the classic that Argentina and Brazil will play in San Juan, for the Qualifiers towards the World Cup that will be organized by Qatar next year. As usual, Lionel Scaloni gave a press conference in the preview of the international commitment and confirmed the presence of Lionel Messi in the starting team that will face the five-time world champion.
In this way the Argentine captain, as the Albiceleste coach had implied before the match against Uruguay , will start the duel that will take place tomorrow at 20:30 at the San Juan del Bicentenario stadium, where he can seal your early classification to the most coveted contest on the planet.
For this to happen, Argentina will have to beat Brazil and hope that Colombia does not do the same with Paraguay . At the moment the selected albiceleste has as insurance at least one place in the playoffs. And to face that commitment to which the Brazilians have already reached that objective, achieved on the previous date, when they defeated the coffee growers as locals by 1 to 0, La Pulga will be there from the start.
“The other day he was very good from a physical level and that’s why we decided to let him play for a few minutes. Tomorrow it is confirmed that he will play. Hopefully he is well, ” Scaloni told the press. He also made reference to Leandro Paredes : “In principle it is fine, but we have to evaluate if he will be in the call, because he has been absent for many days. We still have one more training to go and we will wait until the last moment, but the important thing is that he is already recovered from his ailment ”.
On the other hand, the DT also remarked that they are “pending studies” of Paulo Dybala to consider his presence in San Juan and ruled out an injury to Julián Álvarez. “We did studies in Uruguay for control, but it is available.”
Regarding the clash against Brazil, the strategist stressed that the Tité team ” is one of the most vertical in the call .” “ It will be a very nice game, with a full court, and we hope everyone can enjoy it. We know that they are a very complex opponent, that they have already qualified, but we will do our homework to also seal our classification ”.
“Today it is not worth thinking about the possible list for the World Cup , because we have not yet achieved the goal. We are close, but we must not get ahead of ourselves. Players can never be confirmed so far in advance in a National Team, because there are cases that can raise or lower their level “, warned the coach and stressed his desire to play with European rivals:” I would love to, but today we don’t have that possibility. It would be ideal to play against Spain, Germany or France, but it is in vain to think about it because reality does not allow us to play against them ”.
At the conference, Scaloni also remarked that his idea is to “always play in the same way”, regardless of the opponent ahead. “ Our measure is Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Peru and Uruguay. South American teams are always complex and this is demonstrated in the World Cups, where they reach the quarterfinals. In the last World Cup, France only beat Peru 1-0 in the group stage. The difficulty of our competition is very great ”, he added.
Regarding the formula of the duel for the classic that will take place in San Juan, the coach maintained his caution and remarked that everything will depend on the variables that may arise: “ There are times when possession does not guarantee you a victory . There are times when Brazil changes its way of playing a lot, because everything depends on the location of Paquetá . We have a clear idea, in which we will seek to have control of the game to minimize the positive aspects of them, which we already know what they are ”.
“ When we achieve qualification, we must celebrate it because we know the difficulties that exist today. Although it is taken for granted that Argentina has to be in the World Cup , we are seeing the complications that other teams are going through in South America and in Europe . Today we are in a good position and we want to finalize the passage as soon as possible ”, he concluded.