Scaloni: If you think Australia is easy, you are wrong

Argentina enters the Australia match with the "Saudi lesson" in mind

• Matthew Leckie is Australia's best star against Argentina.

  Reuters

• Messi is Argentina's hope to continue the path to the World Cup title.

  Reuters

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After a shocking start, and an unexpected fall against Saudi Arabia, Argentina is approaching today's match with Australia in the final price of the Qatar World Cup with great caution, as part of its endeavor to continue the dream of winning the title for the first time since 1986.

Argentina waited until the last round of the group stage to settle its qualification to the final price, and to preserve the dream of its captain, Lionel Messi, to end his career with the most important title that he misses from his coffers, by defeating Poland 2-0.

Coach Lionel Scaloni's team put itself in this position after the shock of the opening loss against Saudi Arabia 1-2, before returning to the right track in the second round at the expense of Mexico (2-0), leading to the settlement of its qualification and the top of Group C with a second victory at the expense of Robert Lewandowski. and his associates.

And after the victory last Wednesday, over Poland, which accompanied the South American giant to the final price, thanks to the goal difference from Mexico, Scaloni seemed cautious about the Australians, who finished the group stage at the same distance from defending champion France, and qualified for the final price for the second time in their history, after 2006 in the runner-up, by goal difference from the "Roosters".

Scaloni said that all the teams participating in the finals are "difficult. We saw that against Saudi Arabia. If you think Australia is easy, you are wrong. They showed that by qualifying against difficult teams in this World Cup."

It seems that the shock of Saudi Arabia, which brought to mind the opening loss of Argentina against Cameroon in 1990, before continuing its way to the final, awakened Messi and his companions, who performed excellently in the next two matches against Mexico and Poland.

But Scaloni refused to say that the opening defeat might benefit Argentina for the remainder of its career in the Qatar World Cup, saying, “No, I do not think that losing is useful.

We didn't benefit anything from this defeat, and we knew we had to win the remaining two matches.

Saturday's first confrontation will be between Argentina and the 2015 Asian champions in the World Cup finals, but they faced each other in the international qualifying round for the 1994 World Cup, and the South American team emerged victorious, 1-0, after a 1-1 draw.

On paper, Argentina appears to be a strong candidate to overtake the Australians and qualify for the quarter-finals, where they will face the winner from the Netherlands-US match.

However, coach Graham Arnold's team will not be up for grabs, and he proved this in the group stage, after experiencing a similar scenario for Argentina by losing its first match against France 1-4, before regaining its balance at the expense of Tunisia 1-0, and then deciding its qualification by defeating Denmark 1-1. Zero too.

And “Socruz” showed that he fought with his counterattacks, which will be his weapon again against Argentina in a match in which field dominance will most likely be in favor of Messi and his companions.

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