2023-09-11 03:36:00
The Argentine team led by its captain, Lionel Messi, arrived at night at the hotel where it will stay in the city of La Paz until next Tuesday, when it faces its counterpart from Bolivia for the second date of the South American Qualifiers towards the 2026 World Cup. About 600 people were part of the reception whose common denominator was the popular outcry for La Pulga.
The national team arrived at exactly 10:25 p.m. (9:25 p.m. local time) at the Camino Real hotel aboard the yellow bus of the local company Quirquincho, one hour after arriving at the El Alto airport. Messi got off the bus behind Cristian Romero, who was carrying an oxygen tube like Exequiel Palacios, and ahead of Nicolás Otamendi, who was followed by Ángel Di María, handling a suitcase and waving a slight salute to the shouting of the fans.
The first to get out of the vehicle was the goalkeeper Franco Armani. In addition to those 600 admirers of Messi and company, there were already another 300 who went to welcome them at the airport. The 3,650 meters of altitude of La Paz constitute in itself a worrying element for each team that arrives from the plain and Lionel Scaloni already mentioned it during the midday press conference in Ezeiza. That’s why Cuti and the Bayer Leverkusen player moving with those small silver tubes with green lids was not strange.
The match against those led by the Argentine Gustavo Costas will take place on Tuesday from 5 p.m. in Argentina, opening the complete and extensive day of Qualifiers, which will only close when the Brazilian team visits Peru from 11 p.m. Half an hour before Chile will receive Colombia. And previously, from 6:00 p.m. there will be a big match at the 2,850-meter altitude of Quito, where Ecuador will host Marcelo Bielsa’s Uruguay, while starting at 7:00 p.m., Fernando Batista’s Venezuela will host the Paraguayan team that leads Guillermo Barros Schelotto, also Argentine.
Messi went to do studies to see if he travels to Bolivia
The Argentine national team will train lightly this Monday at 4 p.m. local time, the same time as the next day’s game, at The Strongest stadium, where Scaloni will make the final adjustments thinking about Tuesday’s training, which is not scheduled to close until noon of that same day.
Regarding the probable team, it should be mentioned that the Albiceleste team carried out its training on the field this Sunday with the absence of captain Lionel Messi, who worked differently. The star was not with the group in the movements carried out on one of the fields on the property that the AFA owns in Ezeiza. And later, coach Lionel Scaloni announced the decision on Messi’s availability at a press conference.
Scaloni’s word about the physical condition of Messi and Cuti Romero.
Messi asked for the change at the end of the match with Ecuador (1-0) due to physical exhaustion but does not suffer from any injury, as confirmed in the imaging studies performed on Saturday in a Buenos Aires clinic. The 36-year-old star is fit to be part of the team at the Hernando Siles stadium, but in any case it is not ruled out that he could be kept on the substitute bench to avoid the physical demands of playing at the height of the Andean city.
Since his debut at Inter Miami, on July 21, the Albiceleste number 10 accumulated a dozen games, without having had a preseason after leaving Paris Saint-Germain. Messi worked with light loads in the two training sessions after the match with the Ecuadorians. The world champion team will face Bolivia this Tuesday from 5 p.m. at the Hernando Siles, located about 3,650 meters above sea level, for the second date of the Qualifiers for the United States-Canada-Mexico 2026 World Cup.
Messi leaves in the 88th minute
With information from Télam.
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