Argentina's narrow win over arch-rivals Chile was indeed full of drama. Although Argentina had the advantage and created a lot of shooting opportunities, the problem of weak strikers caused them to be very anxious. What I didn't expect was that Lautaro, as the one who missed the opportunity, came off the bench to save the team and seize an opportunity that was not an opportunity; But then he quickly wasted the chance to seal the win again and returned to his "proper mode".
The problem of lack of power is still plaguing Argentina
For Argentina, the main problem in this match against arch-rival Chile is the team's lack of striker. Argentina created 22 shots in the whole game, nine of which threatened the opponent's goal, but they were completely unable to turn into chances to score (sports battles), which is really frustrating. This also made Scaloni on the sidelines quite anxious. After all, a football match is a competition for many goals, and the momentum cannot be scored, which does not explain the strength advantage at all.
And, of course, a 70 per cent advantage in possession. McAllister and Enzo didn't create many chances in this game, which made Messi and Alvarez in front of them lose their helpers, and it was still quite difficult to fight alone.
On the other hand, the Chilean team adopted a very pragmatic strategy, relying on their traditional counter-attacking routines to dig holes for Argentina. Chile fully accepted the one-point situation, so they were extraordinarily conservative from the start, playing more holes for Argentina and trying to grasp the speed of the counterattack, which annoyed Messi.
The already weak line of attack is even more difficult to deal with.
A key corner, the "unlucky" man saves Argentina
Unexpectedly, just when Chile saw the dawn of hope and was about to become a constraint on Messi's leadership again, a corner kick opportunity suddenly gave them a fatal blow. When Argentina sent the set-piece, Chile were probably tired, which led to some forced confusion and a drop in defensive accuracy. It was then that the ball was playfully down to Lautaro's feet, who comfortably slotted home to change the scoreline.
In this way, the score of 1-0 appeared, and no one expected that Argentina, who had played a whole game of hard work, almost failed to score, but got the opportunity when they were about to give up. What I didn't expect was that Lautaro, who had wasted opportunities and made the Argentines speechless before, became a hero this time, he saved the team, helped Argentina get the opportunity to win two consecutive victories, and successfully broke through.
Obviously, this goal is very important, and the next step can be for Messi and other veterans to rest more easily, without thinking too much.
Of course, it is interesting to note that in the 94th minute of the counterattack, Lautaro once again returned to his familiar pattern. In the face of Di Maria's perfect assist on the counter-attack, he once again missed a great chance and did not allow the win to be sealed sooner.
Messi is in shape, and Scaloni will be at ease
Of course, judging from Messi's performance in the first two games of this year, perhaps such "worries" are superfluous. The Argentine legend played the game perfectly, completing 1 assist and 1 mid-post performance. In the many passing grapples of the VS enemy, he also maintained a 70%+ success rate, and the passing level was also close to 50 times, and the overall performance was very good, and the personal state adjustment was still online.
You know, this is the 37-year-old Messi, not the 27 and 8 years old.
As long as Messi is online, Argentina will inevitably be the recognised favourite.