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As the 13th round of the CONMEBOL qualifiers began, the statistics told a different story for each of the two teams for Uruguay and Argentina. Uruguay has initiated a good run where they had 17 goals and 9 conceded with an average of 9.2 interceptions and 19 tackles per game throughout the season. This rigorous football strategy earned them the edge over opponents in the qualifiers. On the contrary, Argentina focused more on controlling the game as they scored 21 goals while only conceding 7 over the course of a season. Averaging 66% possession with a completion rate of 88 percent coupled with allowing only 0.6 goals per game showcases their intensively skillful structure enabled football strategy.
This night, halftime of Uruguay and Argentina in Montevideo came as a relief to the fans since the first half was boring with no action at all. With both the teams almost sure of qualifying for the world cup, their performance for the first half was lackluster. The number of scorers were scarce in this game and literally none of the players were at their best. In the 19th minute, Paredes had a shot in the stash but targeted the goal far from it.
Soon after, Fernandez and De Arrascaeta had the first shots at goal but Rochet and Martinez made easy saves. Argentina, without Lionel Messi and Lautaro Martinez, was defending more than usual. Fede Valverde of Real Madrid had 36 touches, completing 30 out of 33 passes in the first half.
In the second half, and like the first, Almada’s longrange shot in the 68th minute sealed the winner for Argentina. Toward the middle of the second half on the 71st, Marcelo Bielsa took Fede off. He looked pretty worn out, and the Madrid fans won’t mind him getting as much rest as he can during this busy period.
Uruguay are in fourth position in the CONMEBOL qualifiers which is still good for automatic qualification. They travel to Bolivia for their next match.
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