Russia 2018 World Cup Qualifiers
Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez, two of soccer’s greatest stars, square off today in Mendoza as Argentina hosts Uruguay en route to the 2018 World Cup.
The Barcelona teammates will put aside their friendship and partnership to renew one of the most intense and historic rivalries in South American soccer.
Messi will try to lead Argentina to victory after losing the finals of three straight international tournaments (the 2014 World Cup and the 2015 and 2016 editions of the Copa America), which prompted the soccer star to quit the national team.
Edgardo Bauza, the new coach of Argentina, had to travel to Spain to talk to Messi and ask him to change his mind. He relented and will now play a little farther back in order to have a more important role organizing the team on the field and setting up the attacks.
The most important setbacks for Argentina are Manchester City’s striker Sergio Aguero missing the game with a left-calf injury and PSG’s midfielder Javier Pastore suffering a right-calf injury. Uruguay will be missing Porto’s right back Maxi Pereira and Fiorentina’s midfielder Matias Vecino.
The game between the neighboring countries is the marquee matchup of the seventh round of the regional qualifiers that automatically send four teams to the World Cup and a fifth team to inter-confederation play-offs against a team from Oceania. The other games of the day are: Paraguay -Chile, Ecuador-Brazil, Colombia-Venezuela and Bolivia-Peru.
