Mascherano’s Under 23 team drew in a friendly against Lanús before the pre-Olympic

In one of his last preparatory movements on national soil for the Pre-Olympic which will take place starting January 20th in Venezuelathe Argentine national team sub-23 drew 1 to 1 with Lanús in a friendly match played on Saturday at the Ciudad de Lanús-Néstor Díaz Pérez stadium.

The Boca midfielder Cristian Medina scored the goal for the cast directed by Javier Mascherano, while Braian Aguirre scored for the team led by Ricardo Zielinski. In this duel, Argentina formed with Leandro Brey; Joaquín García, Marco Di Cesare, Nicolás Valentini, Valentín Barco; Ezequiel Fernández, Juan Sforza, Medina; Pablo Solari, Luciano Goundou and Thiago Almada.

After, The replacement teams met and that match also ended 1-1 with goals from Julián Malatini for Argentina and Julio Soler for Lanús. There, the team deployed Fabricio Iacovich; Malatini, Gonzalo Luján, Valentini, Aarón Quiros; Juan Nardoni, Ezequiel Fernández, Francisco González; Pedro De la Vega, Baltasar Rodríguez and Santiago Castro.

This was the sixth preparatory duel faced by the national team in 45 days. In November, they toured Japan in which they recorded a 0-0 draw and a 5-2 defeat against the local Japanese national team in Shizuoka.. In December they achieved two victories against Ecuador: 3-0 at the Ciudad de Caseros stadium and 2-0 at the Ezeiza stadium. Last week, in Ezeiza, they beat Comunicaciones 1-0.

Mascherano and his team are finalizing the preparation of the qualifying tournament which will award two tickets for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. This competition will take place from January 20th to February 11th in Caracas, Valencia and Barquisimeto. Argentina will share group B with Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay and Peru and will debut on Sunday 21 January at 8pm against the Paraguayans at the Misael Delgado stadium in Valencia.

The two best teams from each zone will advance to the final stage of the tournament, where they will face each other. The two teams that add the most points in that case will retain their places to participate in the Olympic event.