Unprecedented: Argentina go to World Cup without facing Europeans | OneFootball

The cancellation of the Finalissima against Spain has given headaches to the AFA and the coaching staff of the Argentina National Team just before the 2026 World Cup. It will also set a rather remarkable precedent: the Albiceleste will arrive at a World Cup without having faced any European teams for the first time in its history.

Unless there is an unexpected turn of events, everything indicates that Lionel Scaloni's team will not face any national team from the Old Continent in a friendly before the World Cup in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.

In this way, for the first time in history, the Argentina National Team will arrive at a World Cup without having played against a European country during the four-year World Cup cycle.

Before the Qatar 2022 World Cup, the Albiceleste had faced Germany (2-2 draw in a friendly in 2019), Italy (3-0 victory in the 2022 Finalissima), and Estonia (5-0 win in 2022).

The cycle with the highest number of matches against Europeans was in the lead-up to the 1982 World Cup in Spain. The team managed by César Luis Menotti played 22 matches against national teams from the Old Continent.

Argentina and Spain were scheduled to face each other on March 27 at the Lusail in Doha. However, the war in the Middle East forced the organizations to look for a new venue. Several options were considered: from the United States to England, Portugal, Italy, or the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid (where Spain would have been the home team). The AFA and Conmebol could not reach an agreement with the Royal Spanish Football Federation and UEFA, amid tense negotiations.

This situation leaves Lionel Scaloni in an unexpected scenario for the team's planning. The coach had already submitted a preliminary list of players who could be called up for the Finalissima, so their clubs would be aware of a possible call-up. However, with the cancellation of the match, that scenario is now on hold.

At the same time, the friendly that Argentina had planned to play against Qatar to complete the FIFA date had already been forgotten after the conflict in the Middle East. Thus, the coaching staff is left without matches before the World Cup, a more than complicated context for Scaloni, who loses a key opportunity to test players and evaluate options for defending the title.

Given this situation, the AFA has two options: look for an opponent to take advantage of the FIFA window, or have the coaching staff call up all the players anyway to train for ten days in Ezeiza and try to find a rival to play against in the country.

One by one: the European opponents of the Argentina National Team in World Cup cycles 1930 (2): Portugal and Belgium 1934 (1): Yugoslavia 1958 (3): Portugal and Italy -2- 1962 (7): Spain -2-, Portugal, Italy, Czechoslovakia, Soviet Union -2- 1966 (6): Portugal, England, France, Soviet Union, Poland, and Italy 1974 (12): France -4-, Portugal, Yugoslavia, Spain, Soviet Union, Germany, Romania, England, Netherlands. 1978 (15): Spain, Soviet Union -2-, Poland -2-, Hungary -2-, West Germany, England, Scotland, France, Yugoslavia, East Germany, Bulgaria, Romania. 1982 (22): Bulgaria -2-, Netherlands, Italy, Scotland, West Germany -3-, Czechoslovakia -3-, Soviet Union -2-, Yugoslavia, England, Ireland, Austria, Poland -2-, Switzerland, Bulgaria, Romania 1986 (6): Poland, Switzerland, Belgium, West Germany, France, Norway 1990 (9): Italy -2-, West Germany -2-, Soviet Union, Spain, Scotland, Austria, Switzerland 1994 (8): Hungary, Soviet Union, England, Wales, Poland, Denmark, Germany, Croatia 1998 (9): Yugoslavia -3-, Denmark, Bulgaria -2-, Spain, Ireland, and Bosnia and Herzegovina 2002 (7): Netherlands, Lithuania, Spain, England, Italy, Wales, Germany 2006 (6): Netherlands, Germany -2-, Hungary, England, Croatia 2010 (10): Spain -2-, France -2-, Switzerland, Norway, Belarus, Scotland, Russia, Germany 2014 (12): Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Albania, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Romania, Slovenia 2018 (6): Germany, Croatia, Portugal, Russia, Italy, Spain 2022 (3): Germany, Italy, Estonia 2026: Did not play against any European team.

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