Enzo started for Argentinaplaceholder image
Enzo started for Argentina | AFP via Getty Images
A Chelsea and a Tottenham star were involved in international action on Friday night.
A Chelsea and a Tottenham star were involved in an international friendly win on Friday night - or the early hours of Saturday morning UK time. It’s already job done for Argentina in the World Cup qualifiers, with the current holders winning their South American (CONMEBOL) qualifying league, which includes all of the nations in that area.
Lionel Scaloni’s men can now concentrate on getting sharp for the World Cup, and as part of that, they took on Venezuela in a friendly on Friday night. Venezuela will not be heading to the World Cup, missing out on the one and only play-off spot by two points to Bolivia.
Chelsea star Enzo Fernandez played 78 minutes of the game, while Tottenham defender Cristian Romero played the full game as Argentina won 1-0, former Spurs man Giovani Lo Celso scoring the winner after 31 minutes.
Fernandez and Romero rated
Olé gave both Romero and Fernandez a 6/10 for their performances. They reasoned for Romero: “He had to take on Marques and was solid in marking, both high and low, against an opponent who struggled to get deep. He made one save on the line.”
They added for Fernandez: “He recovered and distributed the ball well. He put in a lot of effort and made good long passes in the first half. Then he faded, like the entire team. Mac Allister came on for him.”
Elsewhere, BolaVIP also gave Romero a 6/10, writing: “Solid and reliable as usual. He defended with authority, wore the captain's armband beautifully, and handled every action with ease.”
Meanwhile, they were sufficiently impressed to give Fernandez a 7/10, adding: “He showed dynamism and floated throughout the midfield, creating and taking the necessary pause, reminiscent of Enzo from Qatar thanks to certain movements worthy of a hook.”
Chelsea and Spurs fans will be pleased to see their valuable stars ticking over, but their priority will be to get both back without any injury issues. It’s so far, so good on that front, but Argentina still have a friendly with Puerto Rico to play on Tuesday night, local time. Puerto Rico did not manage to advance to the latter stages of the World Cup qualification process despite the CONCACAF qualification being significantly weakened this tme around due to hosts USA, Canada and Mexico qualifying automatically.
Rotation will be expected from Scaloni for that one, but it remains to be seen whether Romero and Fernandez will be involved.
Scaloni’s thoughts
Argentina boss Scaloni said of Argentina’s narrow win: “The first half was pretty good. We had several chances and could have even scored another goal. In the second half, the first 20-25 minutes weren't great, but then we changed our system to be more consistent and improved a bit.
"We won, but the most important thing was to see how the team was doing. We have to see how the players are approaching the final stretch of the World Cup; you can see how much they've played. We weren't sharp, and if we had been, we would have decided the game earlier."
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