A win: that’s what the Argentina national team in the women’s Copa América to qualify for the fourth World Cup in its history. The cast of Germán Portanova will face Paraguay from 21 in the Centennial Stadium of Armenia (Colombia) in the match for third place of the tournament, which will have as a prize the direct ticket to the World Cup in Australia-New Zealand which will take place in 2023.
Las Albicelestes They come from losing 1-0 in the semifinals against the locals, but they still have chances to get that passport available to the maximum tournament. The winning team will join Brazil and Colombia –finalists of the Copa América–, while the defeated team will have to play a complicated playoff together with Chile in february 2023.
Argentina, which in 2006 achieved a milestone and prevented Brazil from winning all the Copa América that had been played to date from 1991 onwards, began its journey in the current edition with a 4-0 loss to the Brazilians but then he recomposed himself with goals against Peru (4-0), Uruguay (5-0) and a narrow victory against Venezuela (1-0) which allowed him to advance to the final playoffs as second in the group.
In the semifinals he fought, but Colombia stepped strong and took the passport to the final with a goal from Linda Caicedo. In any case, Argentina will maintain its status on the continent regardless of its result against the Paraguayans. taking into account that in the last seven editions that were held it always finished among the first four. In addition to the title in 2006, she was second three times (1995, 1998 and 2003), third once (2018) and fourth in two other editions (2010 and 2014).
Although the defeat in the semifinals prevented them from qualifying for the 2024 Paris Olympics (only played in Beijing 2008), which will have Brazil and Colombia as representatives, Portanova’s will play the Pan American Games 2023 to be held in Chile together with the host country, Paraguay y Venezuela.
However, the biggest prize is the ticket to the World Cup: Argentina played the World Cups in the United States 2003, China 2007 and France 2019, although it did not manage to pass the first phase in any of those editions. FIFA has organized this event since 1991 and Brazil is the only representative from the continent that managed to qualify for all versions, although it was never able to lift the title.
So far, in addition to hosts Australia and New Zealand, other 19 selections already got the ticket for the championship that will have 32 participants for the first time in history: Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, South Korea, Costa Rica, Denmark, Spain, United States, Philippines, France, Jamaica, Japan, Nigeria, Morocco, South Africa , Sweden, Vietnam and Zambia.
Argentina could join that group if it beats the Paraguayans this Friday and would already focus on the draw for the group stage to be held next Saturday, October 22 at the Aotea Center Conference Center in Auckland, New Zealand.
If he does not succeed, he will also be looking forward to this event but his eyes will have to move towards the complex repechage tournament to be held between February 17 and 23 next year in New Zealand and will distribute the last three tickets for the contest.
That repechage will have ten countries from the six confederations that will be divided into three pots and from there three playoff keys will be drawn. So far it is known that Cameroon, Chile, Chinese Taipei, Haiti, Panama, Senegal and Thailand will be part of the qualifier. A representative from Conmebol (Argentina or Paraguay), one from UEFA and the rest from Oceania (it will be Fiji or Papua New Guinea) are missing.
Paraguay is one step away from making history for local women’s football, considering that never played a World Cup and comes from drawing the group stage of the tournament in second place behind the Colombians. Those led by Marcello Maria Frigério began with a defeat against the local representative (2-4) and then beat Chile (3-2), Bolivia (2-0) and Ecuador (2-1) to advance to the decisive instances: Brazil beat them in the semifinals with a 2-0.
Las white and red They have as a prominent surname the Spanish Sevilla striker Jessica Martinez, who is the team’s top scorer with three goals. “The match against Argentina will be a final. Today we are strong and we will go out to look for that classification to the World Cup. Paraguay evolved a lot. Qualifying to the semi-finals showed great growth. This team is very special, these girls grew up together since they were little”, the Paraguayan DT pointed out.
Those of Portanova, however, have one of the most outstanding players in the tournament so far: the Boca Juniors attacker Yamila Rodriguezwho signed four so far and is second in the table of top scorers behind the Brazilian Adriana and together with another representative of the Verdeamarela (Debinha). The DT will not be able to count on Aldana Cometti, who tested positive for COVID-19 before the clash against Colombia and has not yet been discharged. Nor can you add Gabriela Chavezejected in the last game.
The great champion of the tournament will be defined this Saturday from 9:00 p.m. when Brazil and Colombia face each other in Alfonso Lopez Stadium Bucaramanga.
PROBABLE FORMATIONS
Argentina: Vanina Correa; Agustina Barroso, Eliana Stabile, Sophia Braun, Romina Nunez, Julieta Cruz or Marina Delgado, Daiana Falfan, Yamila Rodriguez, Florence Bonsegundo; Mariana Larroquette and Stephanie Banini. DT: Germán Portanova.
Paraguay: Alicia Bobadilla Aguilera; Daysy Bareiro Martínez, Verónica Riveros Izquierdo, María Martínez Vecca, Ramona Martínez; Celsa Sandoval, Dulce Quintana, Fanny Godoy, Jessica Martínez, Rebeca Fernández Valiente and Fany Gauto. DT: Marcello Maria Frigério.
Estadio: Centenary from Armenia (Colombia)
Time: 21.00 (Argentina) / 20.00 (Paraguay)
television: Public TV (Argentina) / DirecTV / Gen (Paraguay)
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