Even in a friendly, Argentina’s dependence on Lionel Messi is obvious as the South Americans gave their fans more to worry about on Tuesday when they fell apart and lost 4-2 to Nigeria in a friendly after squandering a two-goal lead.
Juventus’ Paulo Dybala returned for the game in Krasnodar after appearing against Uruguay and Venezuela, whilst Agustín Marchesin and Cristian Pavon also started.
The Juventus man and his teammates started well in Messi’s absence however, with the influential Ever Banega setting the tempo, albeit without really threatening Daniel Akpeyi’s goal.
Not that they needed to. Receiving a backpass from a teammate in the 26th minute, the Nigerian keeper inexplicably handled the ball outside the box as Sergio Aguero closed him down.
Matters were made worse moments later, when Banega scored directly from the resulting free-kick with Akpeyi positioned poorly on the goalline. The strike was Banega’s first for Argentina since June 6, 2016.
A fine passing move saw Argentina double their advantage. After Dybala’s searching pass found Pavon, the Boca Juniors player – just as he did on his debut against Russia a few days earlier – neatly found Aguero who finished with aplomb.
“Pavon can be very important for the national team. Not only is he very quick, but he makes good decisions” said Sampaoli after the game.
Aguero’s goal saw him become the third-highest goalscorer in Argentina’s history, putting him above Hernan Crespo on 36 and with only Gabriel Batistuta (54) and Messi (61) ahead of him in the charts.
It looked like a comfortable result for the Albiceleste, but Nigeria summoned memories of their historic triumph in the final of the 1996 Olympics to stage a miraculous comeback.
After Kelechi Iheanacho scored with his first shot on target, emulating Banega by scoring from a free kick on the stroke of halftime, Nigeria started the second half with renewed impetus.
Iheanacho was the inspiration once more in setting up the equaliser by pulling the ball back for Alex Iwobi to stroke into the net seven minutes after the restart.
The comeback was complete on 54 minutes, with a fabulous interchange involving Jon Obi Mikel, Iwobi and Iheanacho allowing Brian Idowu to score a third to finish off a counter attack.
The afternoon’s masterpiece came just 19 minutes later. Ahmed Musa found Iwobi, who escaped the attentions of Javier Mascherano to rifle an extraordinary shot past Marchesin.
It was a difficult night for Jorge Sampaoli, whose side are patently weaker without Messi in it. The match, which brought his first defeat as Argentina coach, saw the coach give minutes to fringe players like Dario Benedetto, Papu Góomez, Fernando Belluschi, Emiliano Rigoni, Diego Perotti and Emiliano Insua.
