Key events
Team news: Bos and O’Neill start
There are four changes to the Socceroos side that faced Argentina in the last 16 of the World Cup. Nathaniel Atkinson, Jordan Bos, Aiden O’Neill and Jamie Maclaren replace Milos Degenek, Aziz Behich (no barnstorming runs today), Aaron Mooy and Jackson Irvine.
Atkinson (6), Bos (1) and O’Neill (2) have only nine caps between them, so
Argentina have picked a similar team to the one that beat Australia in Qatar, with just two changes up front. Angel Di Maria and the exciting Nico Gonzalez of Fiorentina replace Julian Alvarez and Papu Gomez.
Argentina (possible 4-4-2) Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuna; De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Mac Allister, Di Maria; Messi, Gonzalez.
Substitutes: tbc.
Australia (possible 4-2-3-1) Ryan; Atkinson, Souttar, Rowles, Bos; O’Neill Baccus; Leckie, McGree, Maclaren; Duke.
Substitutes: Strain, Metcalfe, Hrustic, Borrello, Glover, Genreau, King, Devlin, Gauci, Robertson, Stensness, Circati.
Preamble
Rob Smyth
Hello and welcome to live, minute-by-minute coverage of Argentina v Australia in Beijing. In name, this is just another international friendly. In nature, it means all things to all people. To some it’s a chance for the Socceroos to gain a form of revenge for their defeat to the eventual world champions in Qatar (it feels like yesterday that Garang Kuol was denied by Emi Martinez; in fact it was 193 days ago).
To others it’s the first of two vital opportunities – the other is at Wembley in October – for Graham Arnold to assess his young side ahead of the Asian Cup in January and then World Cup qualification. And to those in Beijing, it’s a chance to see Lionel Messi play football again, probably for the final time on their shores.
This is by far Argentina’s toughest game since that astonishing World Cup final, though that isn’t saying that much. In March they beat Panama 2-0 and Curacao 7-0, with Messi scoring the goals he needed to reach a century for his country. Next week they play Indonesia. I’m not sure what the moral of this particular story is.
Tonight is about the future as well the Messi. There are some exciting new(ish) faces in both squads, including Aiden O’Neill and Alejandro Garnacho. We’ll have the team news any second now.
Kick-off 8pm in Beijing, 10pm AEST, 1pm BST.
