Argentina-Mexico, Lautaro and Scaloni in conference

From our correspondent Davide Stoppini

November 25th
Doha (Qatar)

The Bull puts his face on it, before the match from inside or outside. Lautaro Martinez opens the Argentina conference, before the match against Mexico. And he shows a confident face: “We are prepared for this challenge. With Saudi Arabia we lost due to details, due to our mistakes. But now our thoughts are with Mexico. Of course we were sad after the defeat. But that’s how it is in a World Cup “There’s no time to look back. We just have to think about winning for this shirt. Tomorrow we’ll see a strong Argentina, as it should be.” And maybe Diego Maradona will also give a boost, whose second anniversary of his death is just today. Constant presence in the thoughts and questions of the many Argentine journalists present. “Diego was a very important person, for us Argentines and for the whole world. We remember him well. And tomorrow we want to give him a smile by winning.”

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Lautaro is in his first World Cup. The pressure is natural: “There is anxiety mixed with enthusiasm, so many things in the head, but when the referee blew, everything disappeared. We didn’t lose because of this. Now let’s think positive. We just want to win for this shirt. Tomorrow in We’ll have to keep calm on the pitch, Mexico play a lot with the ball, we’ll have to take advantage of our chances.” And again, on the debut knockout: “It was a hard blow, obviously. We didn’t think we’d live in this situation. But we’re a strong, united group. We know what we want even in adversity, we’ve already shown it in the past. We win, we don’t there’s time to look back. Tomorrow we have to do it, it’s an important match for our future. It’s a final, we have to bring out everything we have inside. A catastrophe if we lose? We don’t feel the pressure, there’s a lot of happiness, a lot of fun both in the match and in training. We have confidence in our work.” Then a pass on his goal disallowed, which caused so much controversy in Argentina: “If the Var was active, I can’t believe there was such a mistake. But there are those who will take care of it”. Closing on Kun Aguero, who in recent days had argued around Lautaro, saying that the match against Saudi Arabia was not a match for him: “I don’t know what he said. But it’s his opinion. Saudi Arabia has certainly done a lot pressing in our own half and in midfield. Sometimes we were in a hurry to play deep. But if we had crossed their line, we would have had many chances of one-on-one with the goalkeeper.” Coach Scaloni also hopes there will be tomorrow, against Mexico: “But it will be a totally different match. In life you can lose, I think this is a message for everyone. What counts is how you get back up after defeat. I had this quality as a player: I always looked ahead. And I told my players.”