Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players [R]

Pleased for Buendia, he's had a horrible time with injuries last few seasons.

 

Our team always arrives with worst possible fashion.

 

Let’s be honest, they do not want to go to Angola.

“Oh, we were supposed to get vaccinated?! Ahhhh, rats! Totally forgot that…Maybe next time!”

I can assure you most of them never heard of Angola.

 

Probably just as well if Enzo doesn't go

 

They all pulled a Dybala... cant blame them though.

 

I couldn't agree more. I hope Scaloni brings Valentin Gomez for the LB position.

There is no flaw in his game. Passing, defensive, awareness of space, strength, aerial prowess, everything is commendable. This has to be one of the best defensive performances in the league so far this season. He has comfortably adjusted to being a left back. https://t.co/iMJsprzyWF

— toto 🇦🇷 (@totoscrib) November 11, 2025

 

🚨 Argentina could play France in March.

If France qualify for the World Cup in their November double match day, they could play Argentina in March. The French Federation is looking at the Argentina national team as a possible opponent. Via @fczyz. 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/guBZuG816r

— Mundo Albiceleste ⭐🌟⭐🇦🇷 (@MundoAlbicelest) November 12, 2025

LOL sure, this will totally happen if they pay chiqui $15 million

 

Honestly, I dont like the idea of playing strong side prior to WC. Giving them ideas on how to beat us like Germany used to do. Between 2006-2010, we beat France twice in friendlies, didnt mean much.

I'd rather play teams like Norway, Croatia, Denmark,Switzerland and Austria. Historically, we've struggled against teams like Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria and Iceland at group stage.

 

Especially 2 strong sides the same month if we're playing Spain too. It's a bit much. But maybe we lose those games and then slip under the radar a bit and surprise them when it counts.

 

I remember we faced Germany in Conf 2005 , friendlies 2010 (few months before WC) and also 2012, we beat them in the later two but couldnt repeat it when it really matter. If we do face France, I wouldnt mind a tie result and hopefully we field many of the second string players.

While I hate what Tapia did with his money laundry scheme, I never find friendly opponents quality to be meaningfull in grand scheme of things. We faced Bolivia, Ecuador and El Savador prior to WC 2014, and we had a great tournament. We faced Estonia prior to WC 2022 and if anything its clearly gives Messi big confidence with his goalscoring spree.

 

Tagliafico's comments are very interesting. Im guessing the players are on cruise control because they really dont have much to play for and games against Spain/France should be good.

 

Rattlehead & others, let me ask you how do you rate Argentina's chances getting to another final. While dramatic the last win, many say Argentina can't replicate due to the, "luck" in getting to the final. But surely ARG are favorites as defending champions I feel people are sleeping on. So many good youth prospects and really the manager is the biggest asset. Di Maria is a massive miss but he has time to come around for one last hurrah

 

There was no luck involved they were the best team in every single game they played.

And at times were far better than their opponent

 

I can literally go back to every World Cup and say how luck was involved for every team that won it. The reality is that you need a bit of luck to fall your way and you have to make the most of it.

 

I will never understand why people underestimate Argentina so bad in 2022, if you saw how the team was playing after the Copa America 2021 and how the rest of the world was playing it wasn't strange at all. Especially since Argentina is always a "favourite"

It will depend on the team's mentallity, post Qatar they seem worse (outside some players who didn't have a big role in the team before, like Almada, or the new ones, like Paz), but I can't tell if it's because they drop the level or is just lack of motivation, similar to France after 2018 and pre 2022. What makes me believe is the former is the 4-1 against Brazil and the final against Colombia (after Messi injury)
If we play like those two games I can see us in a final again, if not, we will be out in quarters

 

What situations were lucky for you?

 

There's zero luck when you outplayed the second best team in tournament. Argentina had 20 shots in the final (10 on target) while France only had 10 shots (5 on target). Spain only scored 8 goals in 2010, lost their first game aswell, but nobody consider it as lucky.

Argentina won because they got all the tools (great manager, the right players, strong mentallity, great GK). Penalty shootout is part of the game since the dawn of time, and if you happened to have a goalie that really good at it and great penalty takers, then its your adventage .

Between 2004-2016 , Argentina lost 5 times on penalties , 3 of those were in Copa America final. Do you think non-Argentina supporters consider those results as unlucky? nope, they always consider it as "Argentina being not good enough". Now when we do win the shootouts and the finals, its considered a luck?

In last 5 years, Argentina competed in 3 major tournaments + Finalissima, won all of them. They were unbeaten in 2022 qualifier and had 36 games unbeaten run. They also topped the the 2026 qualifier. Since 2020, they've beaten Brazil (4 times), Italy, France, Netherlands, Croatia, Uruguay but year, its still just a luck and a fluke run....

As for 2026 WC, all I can say they're no doubt among top 3 favorites. But obviously nobody could ever predict the final outcome. We can only do our parts in maximizing our chance. As you said, Argentina do have great manager , great young talents plus lots of experience players still in their prime age and lastly, Messi.

 

But English fans thinks their national team has been unlucky for 60 years... otherwise they'd have had 6 WC .

 

I feel the same way. I honestly feel like the Copa America was somewhat of a jolt where I became quite concerned. Something felt off in that tournament. Maybe it was the awful pitches or the lack of energy, I do not know. The game vs Ecuador was a real cause for concern. With Colombia, we were able to withstand their opening fury and gradually took out James and Lucho, who became obsolete.

As both of us have mentioned, going into 2022 I was extremely confident that we would win it, and even my famous “Man, slap on that third star” months before the tournament and my brackets posted where I said we would defeat Germany in the final. I am currently less confident. Age and lack of hunger is somewhat of a concern for me.

But as you mentioned, it really depends on which side shows up. But I have to ask, why did they not come out guns blazing in the Copa America? Did they pace themselves, were the pitches bad, or did they lack the hunger from the last tournament? Yes, I know, blowout wins in the semis and losing in a final is never a good thing, but us looking lost in the back at times and running out of ideas made me worried.

I guess we will see as we inch closer to the final. Like yourself, either we play in another final or our time runs out somewhere around the quarters.

 

Unless the French plan on playing both of us, I am not sure how this will pan out.

🚨🚨| BREAKING: France is set to face Brazil in a friendly on March 28 in Boston as part of their 2026 World Cup preparations.

[@CanalplusFoot] pic.twitter.com/TyxFTK1evu

— CentreGoals. (@centregoals) November 12, 2025

But don't worry, I hear that Brunei are going to be available.

 

As usual, the media talks about a big friendly, then Chiqui doesn't get bribed enough, and the opponent schedules someone else.

 

Not sure how accurate this is but to be honest I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. The few times I watched Madrid when Mastantuono played, it was obvious the ball was not getting getting to him when he was open. I even mentioned this a couple months ago.

🚨 Some of the Brazilian players at Real Madrid were complaining that Franco Mastantuono was playing a lot at the start of the season.

The entourages of these players are getting to their heads by telling them that Xabi Alonso is the problem.

— @Romain_Molina pic.twitter.com/5B06eeSocc

— Madrid Universal (@MadridUniversal) November 12, 2025

 

I do agree on Argentina being the best team in the tournament. The luck in quotes, mind you, is the narrative of the 5 penalties awarded. This doesn't happen often, not saying they were illegal but just how you can deserve 10 penalties stone cold but only get around 3. To some extent I agree that it was unprecedented and cannot happen again to any team in future. The critics claim Argentina over relied on that to progress and question their future shots at being champions again.

 

Maradona was fouled 150+ times across 4 WC and somehow never win a single penalty, including from that triple tackle from Germany in 1986 final, non of Argentina fans ever make a big deal about it.

RM has won close 70 penalties in CL, they have won 9 penalties this season within just 14 games. France won 4 penalties in WC 2018 and France actually won 4 penalties across 4 WC finals they played, nobody bats an eye on those stats, wonder why?

The penalty they earned in 2006 final was a very soft call (more of a dive) but nobody ever bring that up. How do you explain CR getting 30+ penalties since joining Al nassr? Rigged?

 

I think you are contradicting yourself. You mention that the penalties are not illegal. If they were awarded deservedly, then it should be fine right? It doesn't matter what happened in prior tournaments, there's no such limit of the amount of penalties a team should get during the tournament.

Don't see this as lucky and I think you are overreacting to it.