Argentina have only been scheduling friendlies against weaker national teams since winning the 2022 World Cup.
And they had another accessible opponent this Friday (27).
They even conceded a goal to Mauritania, who sit 115th in the FIFA Ranking, but beat the African side 2-1 at La Bombonera.
Special mention goes to Nico Paz’s goal, as he has been shining for Como in Italy’s Serie A and is expected to return to Real Madrid.
Messi starts on the bench
Scaloni rested De Paul and Messi, for example.
That guaranteed Nico Paz a valuable chance in the starting XI.
The 21-year-old midfielder is having a great season for Fàbregas’s Como.
He has 11 goals and six assists for the team currently sitting fourth in Serie A.
He came through at Real Madrid and is expected to return to the Spanish giants.
There is a €9 million buy-back clause that is likely to be activated for the 2026/2027 season.
Enzo Fernández opened the scoring after a cross from Molina (17').
And Nico Paz doubled the lead with a free-kick (32').
Messi came on for the second half — replacing Nico, in fact.
There were eight substitutions in total.
Including the debuts of Palmeiras’ Giay and Racing’s Gabriel Rojas.
Flaco López, another Palmeiras player, also came on.
The African side looked more dangerous in the second half.
And they got their deserved goal in the 94th minute, through Jordan Lefort.
Mauritania finished second from bottom in Group B of the African World Cup qualifiers. They won only one of their ten matches in the group led by Senegal, with DR Congo advancing to the intercontinental playoff.
Without facing giants…
The highest-ranked team Argentina have faced in friendlies since the World Cup in Qatar was Ecuador, who are currently 23rd in the rankings.
Besides La Tri, Messi & Co. have only faced two other opponents who will play in this year’s World Cup: Curaçao (making their World Cup debut) and Australia — both in 2023.
The next opponent will be another African team: Zambia, who are 91st.
Meanwhile, the Brazil national team — who have just faced France — will still take on Croatia in this FIFA window and had previously played matches against England, Spain, Senegal, Tunisia, Japan and South Korea, for example.
See below all of Argentina’s friendly matches in the current cycle:
2023
2-0 – Panama – 3/23
7-0 – Curaçao – 3/28
2-0 – Australia – 6/15
2-0 – Indonesia – 6/19
2024
3-0 – El Salvador – 3/22
3-1 – Costa Rica – 3/27
1-0 – Ecuador – 6/9
4-1 – Guatemala – 6/14
2025
1-0 – Venezuela – 10/10
6-0 – Puerto Rico – 10/14
2-0 – Angola – 11/14
2026
2-1 Mauritania – 3/27
Zambia – 3/31
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.
