Argentina headed into this summer’s World Cup in Russia with some major concerns. Two of the biggest were the goalkeeping position and a suspect defence. Both were majorly exposed in La Albiceleste’s 3-0 defeat against Croatia on Thursday night.
The defeat leaves Jorge Sampaoli’s team in difficult situation, as qualification is now out of their hands.
Star man Lionel Messi has received heavy criticism from media and fans alike. However, in truth, his teammates were poor. When he did get the ball, the Barcelona man found himself surrounded by three opponents.
Unfortunately, for the diminutive star and his team, Croatia just had too much everything for the South American giants.
Argentina have had some very good goalkeepers down the years. However, they headed into this tournament with three highly inexperienced goalkeepers at international level. To make matters worse, Manchester United goalkeeper Sergio Romero was ruled out on the eve of the tournament.
Sampaoli decided to go with former Chelsea goalkeeper Willy Caballero as his first choice in Russia. The veteran goalkeeper has not done much wrong until the Croatia game when he produced a terrible error to gift Croatia the opening goal.
It was the turning point in a very tight close game. Caballero cannot be blamed for all three goals, but his error cost the South Americans dearly, as it gave Zlatko Dalic’s side something to build from.
They used all their experience to expose a highly vulnerable Argentinian backline. La Albiceleste have just confirmed all the worst fears of their fans prior to the competition.
In truth, Argentina deserved nothing more than what they got against Croatia. They now go into the last game of the competition knowing that only a big win against Nigeria will give them a chance to qualify for the knockout stages. Even then, Sampaoli’s team could still fail to make the last 16.