Nicolás Otamendi, the national team captain without a ribbon who canceled Lewandowski: “This team gets stronger under pressure”

The Argentina national team blow Poland 2-0, with goals from Alexis Mac Allister and Julián Álvarez, in their third league game Qatar World Cup 2022. With this victory the Albicelestial They made it to the round of 16, qualifying as leaders of Group C, and take on Australia this Saturday from 4pm.

The national team’s World Cup run has had some unwanted setbacks. In the previous one, the injury to Giovani Lo Celso, a regular fixture in Lionel Scaloni’s starting eleven, complicated things. Then came the surprise defeat on his debut against Saudi Arabia 2-1, just ten days ago, and doubts began.

However, the 2-0 victory against Mexico was an important morale boost that consolidated the Argentine team and ratified it as a candidate for the World Cup. in all three games Nicola Otamendi He was in the Biancoceleste defense from the start. Twice accompanying Cristian Romero and once sharing central defense with Lisandro Martínez.

The Benfica man played an excellent game against Poland. He scored the Barcelona striker, Robert Lewandowski, No problem. He was attentive to every intervention, he won with his head into the opponent’s area and never lost the ability to prevail individually thanks to his firmness and ability to advance. It is a key piece for Lionel Scaloni.

What Otamendi said after the match

The captain without the tape of this one Argentina national team spoke to the press after the Albiceleste victory. “Aside from the fact that we didn’t play the game we wanted in the first match, unfortunately if the balls had come in in the first half it would have been different. This is a team that gets stronger under pressure, you can see that“, began by saying the defender trained in Vélez.

The 34-year-old from Buenos Aires knew this match would be an “early finish”. “I think against Mexico we knew we had an opportunity, we made it happen. Today we played a final and well, I think we never played out of concentration and tried to do the things the coach asked us to be able to continue advancing match after match,” added the former Manchester City defender.

Nicolás Otamendi firmly stated: “We are aware, we are strong and I think another cup will start from now on and whatever the rival, we have to think about ourselves and try to function as a team, as we demonstrated today.”

The Argentina national team will face Australia for the round of 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup this Saturday, starting at 16:00, at the Áhmad bin Ali stadium.

The summary of the game