Italy 0-3 Argentina Messi and Di Maria i

Italy 0-3 Argentina Messi and Di Maria i

Garrett Luinstra Jersey Argentina made an early statement of intent ahead of the World Cup with an impre sively dominant 3-0 win over Italy to win the UEFA/CONMEBOL Finali sima at Wembley.Although Italy failed to qualify for Qatar 2022, few would have expected the European champions to be so stunningly outcla sed by the Copa America 2021 winners.Much of the pre-game focus was on Giorgio Chiellini, but the last game of his distinguished international career ended at half-time with Argentina deservedly 2-0 up thanks to goals from Lautaro Martinez and Angel Di Maria.Italy somehow prevented the inspired Lionel Me si and Di Maria adding more glo s to the scoreline, but Paulo Dybala finally got their third with the last kick of the game. A brilliant intervention by Cristian Romero had earlier denied Andrea Belotti a simple finish in the 20th minute, with the striker then seeing a looping header saved by Emiliano Martinez a few moments later.But Argentina soon took charge.Me si wonderfully turned away from Giovanni Di Lorenzo and held him off before pa sing acro s goal for Martinez to Duke Dawson Jersey tap home.The Inter forward then turned provider on the stroke of half-time, spinning Leonardo Bonucci and feeding Di Maria, who lifted an audacious chip over the helple s Gianluigi Donnarumma.Roberto Mancini made three changes at the break but if anything Argentina only became more dominant Donnarumma desperately scurried back to stop a Bonucci back-pa s going in, before importantly denying the excellent Di Maria twice.Giovani Lo Celso then mi sed an open goal albeit from Karl Kauffmann Jersey a slightly tight angle after great work by Me si, who subsequently tested Donnarumma twice.But Donnarumma was eventually beaten againat the end, substitute Dybala finding the bottom-right corner after a solo Me si run terrified the Italy defence.What does it mean? World Cup contenders take noteEven with their Copa America succe s last year, there remained a sense that Argentinawere not yet considered to be among the favourites for Qatar 2022 at least, not like France, Spain or even England.But this will have caused a few people to Brennan Besser Jersey sit up and take note. Of course, as previously mentioned, this is an Italy side that will not be in Qatar, but we should not forget they were impre sively crowned European champions le s than a year ago, and yet Argentina genuinely could have beaten them by five or six goals.In what was the first CONMEBOL/UEFA Cup of Champions since 1993, Argentina undoubtedly made something of a statement with a performance that saw them blend rampant attacking football with exceptional organisation. It has been a while since Argentina could consistently do that.Di Maria shows his cla sHe may have been somewhat overshadowed at Paris Saint-Germain in the past few years, but this performance was a timely reminder of the havoc Di Mariacould cause with Juventus next season if he joins. His goal was typically stylish, but that was just the tip of the iceberg as he rolled back the years.Donnarumma tries to prevent embarra smentHad Italy named a poorer goalkeeper between the posts, there is every reason to suggest Argentina could have scored double the goals. Donnarumma did little wrong and produced some good saves, but he was not given much help by the 10 players in front of him.Whats next?Argentina now head to Pamplona for a friendly against Estonia on Sunday, while Luis Rodriguez Jersey Italy begin their Nations League campaign at home to Germany the day before.

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