Scaloni assured that the South American qualifiers “are the most difficult in the world”

The technical director of the Argentina National Team, Lionel Scalonistated that the South American qualifiers “They are the most difficult in the world”after the tight victory over Ecuador 1 to 0, with a free kick goal from Lionel Messiat the beginning of the road to the World Cup 2026.

The coach also raised doubts about the presence of Messi in the match next Tuesday for the second date, against Boliviaat an altitude of 3,600 meters Peaceafter the scorer of the goal was replaced three minutes from time.

scaloni explained that “Messi He asked me for the change, if not, I won’t get it [del partido]”, and then he considered that “later we will evaluate to see what he has, but he asked me for the change.”

“Tomorrow (Friday) they will do tests to see what he has. If he is fine, he will travel and play. If he is not well, we will see what we do. It is all very recent,” remarked the technical director of the world champions.

Besides, scaloni He said that “I am proud of the game the boys played, it was incredible, with the level of demand that this game had. It was played to the limit, as a knockout match has to be played. In many places on the field it was played hand to hand , and we won many duels, and in the ones we lost, we came back quickly.

“We believe that these qualifying rounds are the most difficult in the world. We have to know that we are not invincible, that we can suffer as we suffer today,” he added. scaloni.

Cuti Romero “believes he is He-Man”, according to Scaloni

The driver of the Argentine national team praised the defender Cristian “Cuti” Romeroa figure of the match, and considered that “not much can be said about the game he played. On top of that, with the people who carry him around… He thinks he’s He-Man“.

“He is an incredible centre-back. Sometimes he has to save some trips, because he gets tired and leaves the team behind in a bit of a bad position. But the game he played is incredible. I prefer him to do that than let himself be. He played a complete game” , expanded the DT on the defender who plays in the English Tottenham.

For scaloniit was a special day because just in this match he celebrated five years as technical director of Argentinaand admitted that “when I started, I didn’t think I was going to be there for five years. It seems like it was recently and in reality it was a long time ago. There were difficult moments. There you realize that time has passed. You improve with experience, with more matches”.