The DePaulGate everyone’s attention has been so stolen in the last few hours that it has even served to hide something that could not have been hidden in any other context: The health of Angel Di Maria. Is that the ace of clubs of the staggered it is not yet in full physicality. She was in full view of the world when Lionel Scaloni decided to leave him on the relay bench for this match against Holland. However, this time spaghetti had minutes. He came on in the last 10 minutes of extra time and his come on was served by revulsiveeven if it wasn’t enough to prevent the clash from being defined on penalties.

Di María, who suffered a contraction in his right quadriceps and missed the match against Australia, had been training normally in recent days. And there had also been speculation that he might play against Louis Van Gaal’s side from the start.

However, Scaloni eventually favored the five-back line, with Nahuel Molina and Marcos Acuña at full-backs and Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi and Lisandro Martínez at centre-backs. Y with that draw he had to sacrifice the Juventus man. A mix of technical decision, to counter the rival’s play, with necessity, given that clearly Fideo hadn’t yet returned to his physical fullness.

And he left it explained by DT at the press conference. “We thought we could include Di María in the first extra period, but it wasn’t entirely right. These are difficult decisions. We also had to think about penalties. But always thinking about the attack. We knew Di María could be a weapon in that second half“, conspiracy.

Thus, ten minutes from the end of extra time, Di María entered the field in place of Licha Martínez, who had already been booked. Y he entered in good shape. Is that he started to mess up in the right sector of the attack, where he combined and understood well with Enzo Fernández and Gonzalo Montiel. And also, as usual, he has teamed up with Messi.

Those ten minutes were, coincidentally, the ones with the best Argentine offensive production on the night in Lusail. In that period, in which the national team realized that the Netherlands didn’t have the legs and wanted to avoid penalties, Di María also had the chance to score a goal that would go down in history. It’s just that he almost cornered it. The reaction of Andries Noppert, the 2.03m giant, took his breath away.

The big question now is how Di María will arrive at Tuesday’s match against Croatia. He has almost four days to continue recovering the affected area and also the pace of the match in training. It is known that it is a fundamental piece, even if Scaloni and company have taken care to hide his absence.

Lusail, Qatar. Special delivery.