\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentine men\u2019s national football team takes on Cape Verde on Friday, aiming to reach the World Cup 2026 round of 16. The match will be at Miami\u2019s Hard Rock Stadium, kicking off at 7 p.m. Argentina time.<\/p>\n
After a stellar group stage that saw the Albiceleste storm to the group top spot with three wins, eight goals scored and just one conceded, head coach Lionel Scaloni\u2019s team goes into the knockout stage in good spirits.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re feeling positive after winning the first three games, mainly because we\u2019ve been able to have everyone play,\u201d Scaloni said in his press conference after Argentina beat Jordan 3-1.<\/p>\n
Scaloni added he\u2019d \u201cbe lying\u201d if he said that Cape Verde isn\u2019t a good team that will give Argentina a tough time.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this World Cup, we\u2019ve seen that you have to be careful,\u201d he added. \u201cThey\u2019re a good team that can play fast and has some good players. Some people may underestimate them, but I can assure you they\u2019re a good team.\u201d<\/p>\n
The match will be a historic one for Scaloni, as he\u2019s set to take charge of his 100th game as Argentina head coach. It will leave him just 24 behind the all-time record holder, Guillermo Stabile, who coached the Albiceleste between 1940 and 1960 and won six Copa Americas.<\/p>\n
Who will play for Argentina? Leading the charge against Cape Verde will undoubtedly be team star and captain Lionel Messi. The Rosario player scored six of Argentina\u2019s eight strikes, and currently leads the tournament\u2019s goal-scoring table. He\u2019s also become the World Cup\u2019s all-time goal-scoring record holder.<\/p>\n
Emiliano Dibu will start in goal, with Facundo Medina keeping the spot at left back he\u2019s enjoyed for most of the tournament over usual starter Nicol\u00e1s Tagliafico and Cristian Cuti Romero, who suffered a setback against Austria from the knee injury he was carrying, is also set to start.<\/p>\n
Nahuel Molina beat out Gonzalo Montiel to start at right back, with Lisandro Mart\u00ednez featuring as the other center back.<\/p>\n
In midfield, Thiago Almada will join the trio of Rodrigo de Paul, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez, and Alexis MacAllister, with Lautaro Mart\u00ednez next to Messi up front.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentine men\u2019s national football team takes on Cape Verde on Friday, aiming to reach the World Cup 2026 round of 16. The match will be at Miami\u2019s Hard Rock Stadium, kicking off at 7 p.m. Argentina time. After a stellar group stage that saw the Albiceleste storm to the group top spot with three […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":85453,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,69,15318,66,67,339],"tags":[5307,6040,15350,1368,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-85452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-argentina-mens-national-football-team","category-cape-verde","category-football","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-argentina-mens-national-football-team","tag-cape-verde","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85452\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85453"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}