Two-time champion of America. First in the South American Qualifiers with five points ahead Uruguay. First in the ranking FIFA… Argentina Closes the year with a clear victory over Peru and says goodbye to 2024 with total authority. The world champion, hand in hand Lionel Messi and from a team as serious as it is convinced, it continues to set the trend and keeps moving towards the 2026 World Cup.
The Scaloneta keeps hunger intact, a pure winning personality. It is true that he has lacked freshness in recent games, it seems that he has not yet overcome the retirement of Angel Di Maria. For one thing Lionel Scaloni He warned that next year he needs most of the players to play in his teams. A demand that serves as a warning so that no one relaxes and serves to reflect how far demand has risen.
The thing is Argentina also in front of the weak Peru found some problems that deepen and become proportional between ownership and the number of dangerous situations generated. In any case, without crushing, they deserved to win and by more than one goal.
It is what it should be. This is a monologue of ball control and search for Argentina, the world champion and leader of this South American Qualifiers. It is a permanent fight from Peru, a fragile team, with only one victory in 12 chapters, which started on this date in the penultimate and finished last.
Lionel Scaloni He repeated in a 4-3-3 the same players who could not find clarity in Asunción, in the defeat against Paraguay. And Argentina, without shining, with its insistence, created four clear situations in the first half. The clearest is one from Julián Álvarez on a stick. The other three were “punched” or had cross balls that they could not capitalize on. Alexis McAllister twice and Gonzalo Montiel the rest of the time.
Peru, with its 5-4-1 format, were content to fight back and didn’t find enough space or accuracy to worry Emiliano Martínez in those first 45. And he was able to hold up to 9 minutes in the second half, until Messi He wrote to the left and put it in the middle, at half height, a nice and fair help to that Lautaro Martinez Draw a volley and nail it at an angle, with the help of a deflection to a defender. And it wasn’t just another goal for the Inter scorer. It was his 32nd albiceleste shout, the same number celebrated by a certain Diego Maradona…
After that, almost nothing else happened. Peru couldn’t even get close to Dibu Martínez and seemed overjoyed to lose by a goal difference.
Argentina He continued to struggle to get deeper. And there was only room for a few changes: the departure due to discomfort of Gonzalo Montiel and the debut in the Senior National Team of Giuliano Simeonamong other changes.
So the albiceleste and its captain closed another successful year. And despite some doubts in the last games, they still have a lot to do.
Technical sheet
1. Argentina: Emiliano Martínez; Gonzalo Montiel (m.75, Nehuén Pérez), Leonardo Balerdi (m.89, Facundo Medina), Nicolás Otamendi and Nicolás Tagliafico; Rodrigo De Paul (m.80, Giuliano Simeone), Enzo Fernández, Alexis Mac Allister (m.89, Leandro Paredes); Lionel Messi, Lautaro Martínez (m.80, Giovani Lo Celso) and Julián Álvarez. Instructor: Lionel Scaloni.
0. Peru: Peter Gallese; Andy Polo (m.85, José Rivera), Miguel Araujo, Carlos Zambrano, Alexander Callens and Luis Advíncula; Oliver Sonne (m.72, Edison Flores), Jesús Castillo and Sergio Peña (m.85, Piero Quispe); Paolo Guerrero (m.62, Gianluca Lapadula) and Álex Valera (m.72, Bryan Reyna). Instructor: Jorge Fosatti.
Purpose: 1-0, m.55: Lautaro Martínez.
Referee: Colombian Wilmar Roldán warned Miguel Araujo, Carlos Zambrano and Gianluca Lapadula.
Incidents: The match on the twelfth day of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup played at the Alberto J. Armando ‘La Bombonera’ stadium, in the City of Buenos Aires
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
