Nicholas Otamendi replaced Man Utd star, Lisandro Martinez
Nicholas Otamendi replaced Lisandro Martinez in Argentina’s World Cup opening match against Saudi Arabia today. The furious Man Utd fans called Argentina’s manager Lionel Scaloni “mad” as he chose Otamendi and Romero to start in place of Lisandro Martinez.
Saudi Arabia scored twice in 5 minutes against Argentina.
— ESPN UK (@ESPNUK) November 22, 2022
Manager Lionel Scaloni chose to start Otamendi and Romero over Martinez 👀 pic.twitter.com/dGXvqvPLq5
Lisandro Martinez was in great form for Manchester United, but that wasn’t sufficient to procure him a beginning in Argentina’s first World Cup match.
The 24-year-old previous Ajax star persevered through a troublesome beginning during summer in the wake of joining Manchester United from Ajax in a £55m deal. However, he has set up a good foundation after those early-stage troubles. With Raphael Varane, his defensive partnership was the substratum of the Red Fiends’ ascent up the Premier League Table.
That has yet to mean a beginning spot, with Argentina supervisor Lionel Scaloni deciding to pick previous Manchester City player Nicolas Otamendi and Tottenham’s Cristian Romero for Argentina’s World Cup opening match. Manchester United fans were left raging by the decision, yet Scaloni had his explanations behind not making changes. United fans expressed their anger on social media like Twitter.
when you have Lisandro Martinez 🔪 but you play Otamendi and Romero#ARGKSA #Qatar2022 pic.twitter.com/8w0PxVyyK2
— Yani 🦁 (@yanisimba) November 22, 2022
The 24-year-old Lisandro achieved ten caps for the senior national team before the game, yet didn’t add to that number from the very outset in a match Argentina went into as a strong and the most favorite team.
In any case, Otamendi has been an ordinary in the national side all through their unbelievable 36-match unbeaten run leading to Qatar, so it may not be unexpected that Saloni chose this center-back to start for Argentina.
Martinez played in the match as a 59th-minute substitute instead of Romero.
At that point, Argentina was 2-1 down, with Saudi Arabia clutching to produce a well-known triumph by the identical scoreline.
Before the match started, this was the way Red Demons’ allies responded to the news that Otamendi was playing rather than Martinez.
