Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was cautious in responding to reporters’ questions about Angel Di Maria’s readiness for the World Cup quarter-final match with the Netherlands on Friday, but said Thursday that he would only use ready-made players in the important confrontation.
Sharjah 24 – Archyde.com:
Argentina coach Lionel Scaloni was cautious in his response to reporters’ questions about Angel Di Maria’s readiness for the World Cup quarter-final match with the Netherlands on Friday, but said Thursday that he would only use ready players in the match.
Striker Di Maria missed the last-16 victory over Australia with a left thigh injury and Scaloni also faced questions about Rodrigo de Paul’s fitness after media reports, denied by the midfielder, that he had a muscular problem.
“In principle, the two players feel that they are in good shape, and we will evaluate the fitness of the two in training today, before choosing the squad,” Scaloni said in a press conference, before venting his anger at the media coverage of his team.
“We trained yesterday behind closed doors, so I don’t know where this information comes from, but the team’s interest comes first. I will only choose players who are completely ready for the match to help the team.”
Scaloni has been changing the elements that help Lionel Messi offensively and dodged questions about whether Enzo Fernandez would move forward or whether Paulo Dybala would participate.
But what the 44-year-old coach confirmed is that his players are fully prepared to give their all at Lusail Stadium.
“We will break our backs for Argentina, as we did in previous matches.
“Sometimes we played very well, other times we didn’t play as well, but the team always spares no effort for our country.
“We will do everything on the field, football is sometimes very beautiful, and sometimes it is cruel.”
Scaloni was also reticent in answering questions about whether he would prefer to face arch-rivals Brazil or Croatia in the semi-finals if Argentina qualified, and said he felt the tournament was still open to all possibilities.
He added, “We are walking on a very fine line. We cannot really predict who will win the title. We are talking about strong and equal teams.”
In the last two confrontations between Argentina and the Netherlands in the World Cup, the first in the 2006 group stage and the second in the 2014 semi-finals, in which the Argentine national team won on penalties, neither of the two teams was able to score a goal in normal or extra time.
Scaloni said that Argentina are training for penalty kicks, but he expressed hope that the match would not reach penalties.
He said, “We train for penalty kicks before and after matches, but luck always plays a big role in penalty kicks. I hope we don’t get to penalty kicks, and we hope that the match ends before that.”