{"id":18527,"date":"2026-07-18T13:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=18527"},"modified":"2026-07-18T13:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T13:41:07","slug":"lionel-scaloni-slams-fifa-over-world-cup-final-training","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=18527","title":{"rendered":"Lionel Scaloni slams FIFA over World Cup final training"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Luis de la Fountain and Lionel Scaloni (Photo by Lars Baron, Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
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Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni has hit out at FIFA for forcing his team to train at an unfavourable time for him and his players ahead of the World Cup final.<\/strong><\/p>\n
Scaloni\u2019s side take on Spain in tomorrow\u2019s big game as they look to retain the trophy they won in Qatar in 2022, but it seems the manager is concerned at the European giants having the edge due to the less than ideal preparations for his side.<\/p>\n
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It\u2019s sure to be a close game between two superb sides, so any small detail could swing things in one team\u2019s favour, with Scaloni clearly concerned that he hasn\u2019t had a proper training session with his team.<\/p>\n
Lionel Scaloni\u2019s complaint about \u201cstrange\u201d FIFA request<\/h2>\n
Speaking at a press conference ahead of the World Cup final, Scaloni hit out at FIFA for their scheduling that meant his players only had a brief session in the strong heat.<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n
Argentina\u2019s run to the final<\/strong><\/td>\n
They will oppose<\/strong><\/td>\n
Result<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Group J \u2013 matchday one<\/td>\n
Algeria<\/td>\n
3-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Group J \u2013 matchday two<\/td>\n
Austria<\/td>\n
2-0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Group J \u2013 matchday three<\/td>\n
Jordan<\/td>\n
3-1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Round of 32<\/td>\n
Cape Verde<\/td>\n
3-2 (AET)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Round of 16<\/td>\n
Egypt<\/td>\n
3-2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Quarter-final<\/td>\n
Switzerland<\/td>\n
3-1 (AET)<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
Semi-final<\/td>\n
England<\/td>\n
2-1<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just now resting because we arrived last night around 11.00,\u201d the 48-year-old said.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday they forced us to train at a time we didn\u2019t want.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut with the press conference and everything, we had to do a strange, quick training session, and we hardly got to try anything out.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe are focused on rest and based on that we will see how they arrive, because there are players who are not at 100%.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will evaluate how they are. We play thinking about ourselves, but being mindful of the good things that the opponent has.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not clear what exactly went wrong here for Argentina, and perhaps it\u2019s not even entirely true, and could be an attempt from Scaloni to play mind games with Spain.<\/p>\n
Argentina beat England to make the final, while Spain triumphed over France. The final will take place at 8pm BST tomorrow, while England and France meet in the third place playoff this evening at 10pm BST.<\/p>\n
Luis de la Fountain and Lionel Scaloni (Photo by Lars Baron, Justin Setterfield\/Getty Images) Argentina…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18528,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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