Two-time champion of America. First in the South American Qualifiers with five points ahead of Uruguay. First in the ranking FIFA… Argentina Closes the year with a clear victory against Peru and says goodbye to 2024 with total authority. The world champion, hand in hand with Lionel Messi and from a team as serious as it is convinced, it continues to set the trend and moves steadily towards the 2026 World Cup.
The Scaloneta sustains hunger intact, a pure winning personality. It is true that he has been lacking freshness in recent games, as if he had not yet overcome the retirement of Angel Di Maria. For something Lionel Scaloni He warned that next year he needs most of the players to play on his teams. A requirement that serves as a warning so that no one relaxes and that serves to reflect how far the demand is raised.
The thing is Argentina also in the face of the weak Peru found some problems to go deeper and be proportional between possession and the number of dangerous situations generated. In any case, without crushing, they deserved to win and by more than one goal.
It was what was supposed. It was a monologue of ball control and search for Argentina, the world champion and leader of these South American Qualifiers. It was a permanent resistance from Peru, a fragile team, with just one victory in 12 chapters, which started this date penultimate and finished last.
Lionel Scaloni He repeated in a 4-3-3 the same players who had not found lucidity in Asunción, in the defeat against Paraguay. And Argentina, without shining, with its insistence, generated four clear situations in the first half. The clearest is one from Julián Álvarez on a stick. The other three were “punctured” or crossed balls that they could not take advantage of. Alexis MacAllister twice and Gonzalo Montiel the remaining time.
Peru, with its 5-4-1 format, was content to resist and never found space or precision enough to worry Emiliano Martínez in those initial 45. And he was able to hold out until 9 minutes into the second half, until Messi He scribbled on the left and put it in the middle, at half height, a nice and fair assistance so that Lautaro Martínez Draw a volley and nail it at an angle, with the help of a deflection on a defender. And it wasn’t just another goal for Inter’s scorer. It was his 32nd albiceleste shout, the same number celebrated by a certain Diego Maradona…
Afterwards, almost nothing else happened. Peru didn’t even get close to Dibu Martínez and seemed super happy with the defeat by one goal difference.
Argentina He continued to have difficulties going deeper. And there was only room for a few changes: the departure due to a muscle discomfort of Gonzalo Montiel and the debut in the Senior National Team of Giuliano Simeoneamong other modifications.
Thus the albiceleste and its captain closed another successful year. And despite some doubts in the last games, they are going for much more.
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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. Coach: Lionel Scaloni.
0. Peru: Pedro 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). Coach: Jorge Fosatti.
Goal: 1-0, m.55: Lautaro Martínez.
Referee: Colombian Wilmar Roldán cautioned Miguel Araujo, Carlos Zambrano and Gianluca Lapadula.
Incidents: Match of 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
