MADRID, 8 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Argentina’s coach, Lionel Scaloni, was confident this Thursday ahead of the quarterfinal match against the Netherlands next Friday, while acknowledging that he expects a “beautiful” match against a “balanced” team, which exemplifies what “the football of today” is like.
“The Netherlands is a very balanced team, everyone defends and everyone attacks, they are a bit like the summary of football today. Years ago it was thought that there were four or five to attack and others to defend, today football is something else. It will be It was a nice match to watch, there are two teams that propose to attack, but without neglecting themselves. If you only think about attacking, in the end you end up paying for it,” the coach said at a press conference.
Asked about the possibility of going to a penalty shootout, the coach confessed that he hopes he doesn’t have to get to that situation. “Guys kick all the time, they stay after practice. But when you go kicking in the game, it’s a matchbox on game day. Let’s hope we don’t get to that stage and pass sooner,” he said.
“Penalty kickers are always defined after 120 minutes, it cannot be raised from before. It would be mediocre, not at all. We think of winning it in regulation time, it will be seen in the last minutes. This is very easy to say but you have to do it and manage it, decisions are made when they should be made,” he added.
The Argentine also recognized that he does not rule out a possible personal marking on Leo Messi. “Leo’s mark, we’ll see what happens in the game. We’re used to rivals proposing something different, we don’t get ahead of ourselves. Yes, within the game there are variants, changes, including us. But I don’t want to get ahead of myself, it’s one thing to say it and another to do it. We have played parties in which the rivals have done it”, stood out.
In addition, the coach was annoyed by the leaks that pointed to a possible injury to Rodrigo De Paul. “Yesterday’s training (Wednesday) was behind closed doors, I don’t know how they know that something is wrong with Rodrigo. It’s very strange and with this they already know what I mean. In principle it’s fine, we’re going to see the training. Yesterday we trained behind closed doors closed and I don’t know where this information comes from,” he said.
Scaloni ended up implying that Rodrigo is not at 100% due to an overload in his right hamstring, although he did not clarify if he will start. “Rodrigo trained a part yesterday, now we will see in training this afternoon what decision I make. In principle he trained, the players who have played sometimes decide that they do half training. I would not dare to say if he is there or not, never is known,” he added.
The coach also wanted to talk about the situation of Ángel Di María, absent in the round of 16 against Australia due to injury. “Di María did not do all the training at the same time, he did half of it. I will talk to him today and we will do our best. He is an important player but those who are best have to go out on the pitch,” he assured.
On the other hand, the player of the Argentine team, Alexis Mac Allister, admitted that he was surprised by the leading role he is having in the World Cup, after starting three of the four games played by his team. “The truth is that if they asked me before the World Cup, I assure you that he would sign what is happening to me,” he assured.
On his rival next Friday, the midfielder pointed out the good form of the Netherlands and highlighted the figure of Frenkie de Jong. “They have a very clear idea of the game, with players of the hierarchy like De Jong and others. We will try to do our best to take the game forward. They are a very tough opponent, there has been history between the two teams. The most important thing is to go through, in 90 minutes, in 120 or in penalties”, he pointed out.
“They have great players and a very clear idea of the game. We have to finalize the details, in general terms the most important thing is to think about our game, play our game and if we do things well, everything will go well. We also have to accommodate those details so they don’t hurt us,” he concluded.