Lautaro played his part in Argentina’s 2022 World Cup success by converting the decisive spot-kick in ‘The Battle of Lusail’ with the Netherlands but he didn’t register a single goal in Qatar, and Scaloni’s decision to replace him up front with Alvarez was arguably the most important change in personnel in the entire tournament.
Consequently, while Lautaro says that winning the World Cup was “collectively, something great, something that will go down in history”, from an individual perspective it was a disappointment, as he felt he could have contributed so much more had it not been for his fitness issues at the time.
“I didn’t leave Qatar the way I wanted to because I didn’t make it to the World Cup the way I wanted to,” the Inter captain told TyC Sports earlier this month, “but today I have.”
However, despite starting against both Algeria and Austria, and winning a penalty against the latter, Lautaro is still waiting for his first World Cup goal after eight appearances across two editions. It will, thus, be fascinating to see if Scaloni sticks with Lautaro up top against Jordan in the hope that he’ll finally break his duck.
