Lionel Messi, captain of Argentina, in the match against Australia of the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Photo: Friedemann Vogel / EFE
With a great performance from its best player and captain, the Argentine National Team surpassed -as expected- its Australian counterpart to reach the quarterfinals of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. As a curious fact, the Albiceleste was the one that covered the fewest distances on the pitchaccording to statistics from FIFA itself.
The record that measures this quality was provided on Sunday by the soccer governing organization. Argentinian traveled 105 kilometers during the group stage.
According to coach Arsene Wenger, FIFA’s director of Football Development, this is because Argentine coach Lionel Scaloni’s style of play is recover the ball before the opponent develops his ideaso they run less to get the ball back.
The United States National Team, already out of the World Cup after being defeated in the round of 16 against the Netherlands by a score of 3-1, was the team that covered the most kilometers with 123.
Is Argentina still a favorite to win the World Cup?
After having won the last Copa América and achieved a streak of 36 games without seeing defeat, Argentina was surprisingly defeated on the first day of the Qatar 2022 World Cup against a brave Saudi Arabia.
Favorites to lift the Jules Rimet trophy, the Argentines raised serious doubts about whether they could even reach the grand final and the favorite poster was in discussion.
Arsene Wenger did not want to give a precise forecast of his tournament favourite, but he did anticipate the characteristics of the National Team that should be champions: “The teams with the best wingers have more chances to win the World Cup. The full-backs are also key, you have to get these players to take advantage of the band. France is among them. It’s going to be dangerous until the end.”
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