Argentina: first pre-list names ending the season, eyes on the World Cup | OneFootball

With the debut against Algeria on the horizon, several players from the 55-man preliminary squad 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 Argentine 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 official the list of 55 preselected players, the Argentine coach will start having the first “released” players available from this weekend onward, once the schedules in Europe’s top 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 says goodbye with an all-Argentine clash: Bayer Leverkusen, featuring Exequiel Palacios and Ezequiel “Equi” Fernández, will host Hamburg’s Nicolás Capaldo. Meanwhile, in Portugal, Alan Varela will celebrate the title with Porto, while Nicolás Otamendi and youngster Gianluca Prestianni will look to secure second place with Benfica.

From this first group of eleven players, names such as Rulli, Balerdi, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Barco, and Palacios are believed to have their spots 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 are viewed as backup options with future potential.

The rest of the leagues (Spain, Italy, England, and MLS) will finish on Sunday, May 24. However, the locally based call-ups will still have international cup matches 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 Sudamericana clash against Blooming, but everything indicates that only Acuña and Montiel will appear on the final list.

As for Boca, the only definite World Cup player is Leandro Paredes, although Di Lollo, Aranda, and Delgado are also part of the preliminary squad and will have to fulfill their Copa Libertadores commitment against Universidad Católica on Thursday the 28th. Lastly, 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 called up unless there is 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. Players arriving in the country are expected to do light training at the AFA grounds in Ezeiza during the last week of May.

On June 1, the delegation will depart for Kansas, chosen as the main base, to play 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.