Argentina beat Mauritania 2-1 at La Bombonera last night, the scoreline controlled early then nervy late as L. Scaloni weighed rotation against cohesion under the Buenos Aires lights.
L. Scaloni kept the 4-3-3 he has trusted, Enzo Fernández anchoring the midfield while Thiago Almada and Alexis Mac Allister rotated lanes behind the front three. The plan clicked in the 17th minute when Nahuel Molina’s overlap fed Enzo Fernández, whose finish opened the night and rewarded the right-sided overload Argentina kept posing against Mauritania’s 4-4-2.
Control doubled in the 32nd minute. Nico Paz capped a breakout first senior start by scoring from the left channel, converting the territorial dominance that Cristian Romero and Marcos Senesi generated by pinning Mauritania’s forwards deep. That early two-goal cushion framed the evening as an audition for the younger core behind the world champions’ established spine.
López Garai’s team survived mostly by numbers behind the ball, Lamine Ba booked for tripping in the 38th minute as he tried to slow Julián Álvarez. Yet Mauritania stayed compact, trusting Aboubakary Koita’s counters and Beyatt Lekoueiry’s energy to relieve pressure even as they produced only two registered attempts across the match.
The restart brought sweeping change. L. Scaloni made a triple switch in the 46th minute, introducing R. de Paul, L. Messi and Franco Mastantuono for Nicolás González, Nico Paz and Julián Álvarez. Mauritania responded by sending on Papa Ndiaga Yade for Mamadou Diallo at the same moment, a clear shift towards fresher legs on both flanks.
The rhythm sagged once Enzo Fernández departed in the 56th minute for Giuliano Simeone, and the hosts never fully recalibrated. Senesi’s yellow for holding in the 61st minute typified a back line suddenly less protected. López Garai kept pressing with Sidi Amar Bouna in the 63rd minute and then a triple substitution in the 78th minute, introducing Khadim Diaw, Moctar El Hacen and Sidi Yacoub to target Argentina’s reshaped full-back pairing of Gabriel Rojas and Agustín Giay, who had arrived in the 69th minute.
Mauritania’s belief grew with every Argentine change. By the 85th minute López Garai had turned to most of his bench, and the payoff landed in the 90+4th minute when Jordan Lefort converted after Sidi Yacoub’s delivery, a reminder that the visitors’ structure stayed alive long enough to exploit a lapse. The late strike tightened the scoreline without erasing an Argentine performance built on 73 percent possession and 317 passes at 94 percent accuracy, but it underlined how costly broken rhythm can become when experimentation overrides tempo.
Tactically the match reinforced familiar truths. Argentina’s width and midfield cycle still hinge on Molina and Marcos Acuña driving high from a flat-back four, with Enzo Fernández balancing the space behind them. Argentina finished with six shots, and the front line, now Lionel Messi plus teenagers, struggled to accelerate play between the lines once those reference points left. Mauritania, limited to 121 passes and two attempts, still proved organized enough to drag the contest into stoppage-time stress, a useful data point for López Garai as he rebuilds the side’s confidence in such company.
The March window now turns into planning for the Copa América defense, with L. Scaloni sorting which of Paz, Mastantuono and Giuliano Simeone can handle minutes when the stakes rise. Mauritania fly home encouraged that their depth pieces can execute López Garai’s compact 4-4-2 ahead of June’s World Cup qualifiers, even if the gap in talent remains clear. For more on the international slate, keep an eye on China PR U23 vs Korea DPR U23 later in the window.
Statistics
- Shots: Argentina 6, Mauritania 2
- Possession: Argentina 73 percent, Mauritania 27 percent
- Pass accuracy: Argentina 94 percent (299 of 317), Mauritania 84 percent (102 of 121)
- Yellow cards: Argentina 1 (Marcos Senesi 61st minute), Mauritania 1 (Lamine Ba 38th minute)
