Soccer
Lionel Scaloni insists Argentina are not over-reliant on Lionel Messi ahead of his side’s last-32 clash against Cape Verde at the World Cup.
Argentina’s title defence has got off to a brilliant start as they finished the group stage with a perfect record (W3), while scoring eight goals and conceding one.
Messi scored six of those goals, despite not starting their last win over Jordan, and leads the Golden Boot race alongside Kylian Mbappe, who has played a game more.
The Argentina captain has been involved in nine goals in his last five knockout-stage appearances at the tournament (five goals, four assists), scoring in each of his last four.
Should he feature, which is likely, he will become the first player to make 30+ appearances at the World Cup, with this set to be his 13th cap in the knockout stages.
“Of course, everything he does is more visible, but there is one more striker in the team,” Scaloni said of Messi.
“We do create chances, and Leo Messi, apart from being a great player, he’s a striker. Whether he plays with Julian [Alvarez] or Lautaro [Martinez], we will try for all of them to score just as anyone else.”
Asked how many minutes Messi would get, Scaloni added: “I don’t think it really makes sense to reply to this now. I don’t know how the match is going to be, how he’s going to be feeling,” he said.
“He’s been playing very well. I hope that everything will go well, but it will depend on how the match goes and how he feels.”
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This will be the first-ever meeting between Argentina and Cape Verde, who made history after finishing second in Group H behind Spain and ahead of Uruguay after three draws.
They are the first debuting nation to reach the knockout stages in their first World Cup tournament since Slovakia in 2010, and the first African side to do so since Ghana in 2006.
Despite starting the tournament ranked 63rd in the FIFA rankings, Cape Verde have proven very tough to beat, having held out European champions Spain in their World Cup opener.
And Scaloni is not expecting an easy game, despite Cape Verde being the smallest nation to make it out of the groups.
“We’re in a good moment, but now the margins are very small. This is a match where if you lose, you’re out. We know that,” Scaloni said.
“They’re a good team. We’ve already watched them, not just because we are playing against them, but because we were analysing potential opponents and then they qualified.
“We are not surprised, to be honest. They are a good team, and they are not here by chance. We must respect them, and that’s what we will do.
“Against Saudi Arabia, they deserved to win. Against Spain and Uruguay, maybe they suffered a bit more, but they defended well.
“They also closed down the inside channels, and they are really good on the counter-attack. They have skilled players.”
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