Argentina squad: first prelist names finish season eyeing World Cup | OneFootball

With the debut against Algeria on the horizon, several players from the 55-man preliminary list will be released this weekend as the leagues in France, Germany, and Portugal come to an end.

With the World Cup just around the corner, the Argentina national team’s coaching staff, led by Lionel Scaloni, is putting the final logistics in motion for the tournament, which will begin on June 11.

After making the 55-man preliminary squad official, the Argentine coach will begin to have the first “released” players available starting this weekend, once the calendars in Europe’s main leagues come to a close.

In France’s Ligue 1, the Olympique de Marseille contingent — Gerónimo Rulli, Leonardo Balerdi, and Facundo Medina — will wrap up their participation against Rennes. Meanwhile, Nicolás Tagliafico will do the same with Lyon against Lens, while Valentín Barco will bring the curtain down on the season with Racing Strasbourg against Monaco.

In Germany, the Bundesliga signs off with a clash of Argentines: Bayer Leverkusen, featuring Exequiel Palacios and Ezequiel “Equi” Fernández, will host Nicolás Capaldo’s Hamburg. Meanwhile, in Portugal, Alan Varela will celebrate the title with Porto, while Nicolás Otamendi and youngster Gianluca Prestianni will look to secure the runner-up spot with Benfica.

From this first group of eleven players, it is estimated that names such as Rulli, Balerdi, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Barco, and Palacios have their place in the final 26-man squad virtually secured. Others, such as Medina, Fernández, Capaldo, Varela, and Prestianni, will not make the final cut, as they appear more as backup options with future potential.

The rest of the leagues (Spain, Italy, England, and MLS) will conclude on Sunday, May 24. However, the locally based call-ups will still have international cup matches to play until the days just before the trip.

At River, Gonzalo Montiel, Marcos Acuña, Santiago Beltrán, Lucas Martínez Quarta, Germán Pezzella, and Aníbal Moreno would be released after Wednesday the 27th’s match against Blooming in the Copa Sudamericana, but everything indicates that only Acuña and Montiel will appear on the final list.

On Boca’s side, the only definite World Cup player is Leandro Paredes, although Di Lollo, Aranda, and Delgado are also part of the preliminary squad and must fulfill their Copa Libertadores commitment against Universidad Católica on Thursday the 28th. Finally, at Racing, Facundo Cambeses and Gabriel Rojas will close out their semester on Wednesday the 27th against Independiente Petrolero, but they will not be part of the final 26-man squad barring a last-minute exception.

Argentina will begin its World Cup dream on Tuesday, June 16 against Algeria, in what will be the opening step of a new hope under Scaloni’s command. The players arriving in the country are expected to do light training at the AFA complex in Ezeiza during the final week of May.

On June 1, the delegation will depart for Kansas, chosen as the main base, to play the warm-up friendlies against Honduras on June 6 in Texas and Iceland on June 9 in Alabama.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.