No evidence. No trials. Argentina prepare the Final contra Italia at Wembley as if it were his World Cup debut. Lionel Scaloni’s idea is to put together the ideal team, with Lionel Messi as captain and with all the usual starters.
Emiliano Martinez; Nahuel Molina, Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Marcos Acuña; Angel Di Maria, Guido Rodriguez, Rodrigo De Paul, Giovani Lo Celso; Messi and Lautaro Martínez would play from the start this Wednesday.
If the start of the World Cup were today, Scaloni would choose those players for the opening match. The only one who would get into that lineup is Leandro Paredes, who is with the team in Bilbao but still has a little over two weeks left to recover from a muscle injury. He would enter in place of Guido Rodríguez.
The Argentine coach was involved in a concern. Just as he knows that his Argentina has plenty of friction against South American teams, he is also aware that he needs to measure himself against powerful European rivals. That is why this clash with Italy is so valuable, even though they have not qualified for the World Cup.
Tomorrow, from Lezama to London
Scaloni wants to see how his players respond against opponents from Europe. Although most of his players play on that continent and know what it is about, he intends to observe the collective responses. Today will be the last training session at the Lezama complex and then the Copa América champion will travel to London to meet the European Championship champion.
The second friendly will be very different, with the more than modest Estonia, on Sunday surely in Pamplona. First it was going to be played in the Real Sociedad field and then in the Alavés field. In these hours, the Osasuna stadium would be officially confirmed as the stage. There, Scaloni will make changes and will use those 90 minutes to rehearse with some different names and continue adjusting the final list.
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