Scaloni assures Messi will play friendly against Angola | OneFootball

The coach of the Argentine national team, Lionel Scaloni, confirmed this Thursday, after arriving in Angola, where his team will play a friendly match on Friday, that Lionel Messi will get minutes on the field, as will other World Cup champions.

“Messi will play, in principle. I don’t know how many minutes, we’ll see. The fans will be able to see him,” said Scaloni in statements released by the Argentine Football Association.

La Albiceleste traveled from Alicante, Spain, where they had been training since Monday and where they were greeted by a crowd of over 20,000 fans at the Manuel Martínez Valero stadium this Thursday.

The coach revealed that he has already decided on the starting lineup for the match in Luanda, the Angolan capital.

“It will be a team I fully trust, one that has played together a lot,” noted Scaloni, before emphasizing: “Many World Cup champions will be on the field, and the fans will be able to enjoy that.”

He also indicated that he replaced unavailable players with others he had been observing. The match “helps us see them in action and confirm what we thought, that they can contribute,” he emphasized.

“Many of our players are on the field fighting for a spot on the World Cup squad. We have nothing to lose. We’ll try to play a good match, controlling the game our way,” the coach continued.

Scaloni praised the African opponent: “In football, superiority has to be shown on the field, so we’ll try to give our best tomorrow (Friday). That’s what we came for. Angola has good attacking players, tall defenders with good aerial ability. Every team has strengths and weaknesses.”

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