El Toro is the second goalscorer of the Scaloni era and was undisputed in all qualifying matches, but in the World Cup he lost the spot to Julián.
Since Lionel Scaloni’s cycle began at the helm of the Argentina national teambegan a deep renewal that had the first standard bearer Lautaro Martinezwho responded quickly with a pure purpose and took undisputed ownership.
Although it was not long before he established himself as the reference of the attack in the process of the Pujatense DT, starting four of the six matches of the Copa América 2019, it was in the friendly match against Mexico, in the first tour after the game in Brazil, where the Bull had the night of his life in 39 minutes he got a hat-trickat maximum power to advance the Tri-defense.
During the 2020 European recess, he was one of those who wanted to strengthen Barcelona, but in the end he stayed with Inter, where he would become champion a year later, albeit in a different role from the one he usually plays at the Albiceleste: at Neroazzurro he joined Romelu Lukaku and took advantage of the space left by the Belgian, while in the national team he spearheads, without a weighty partner in the area.
Before the start of the qualifiers, he endured a four-game goal drought, adding a weak start against Ecuador, but he managed to convert the equalizer in La Paz into a fortuitous action that came with his willpower , later adding the assist for the final 2-1. And in Peruwas responsible for the 2-0 on the fourth date by avoiding Gallese. However, an important drought would begin there: two matches for the qualifiers and another two for the Copa América, until they came against Bolivia in the second half and immediately benefited from a rebound to end their drought. In the quarter-final, against Ecuador, he received Messi’s pass to shoot down Galíndez, while the formula was repeated against Colombia in the semi-final. Back in the qualifiers, he made it 1-0 against Venezuela, 3-0 against Uruguay and opened the bill against Peru, reaching 17 on his personal account.
After starting against Bolivia on September 9 at the Monumental, El Toro planned to play from the start in Thursday October 7’s game against Paraguay, but a muscle discomfort that didn’t go away on game day dropped him out of his first national team match in over two years: The last time he did not play was in the Copa América 2019 match for third place against Chile due to a suspension. After putting the physical problem behind him, Lautaro was in the classic of Río de la Plata against Uruguay from the start and converted again just like four days later.
On the double date in November, which Argentina played against Uruguay and Brazil, the Bull did not score on the scoreboard. And to make matters worse, he played little: although he started both games as a starter, he was substituted after 55 minutes against the Uruguayans and after 46 against the Brazilians.
With his winning mentality, he undoubtedly sought revenge in Calama against Chile. And although he barely made contact with the ball in half an hour, grabbed the rebound Claudio Bravo gave for De Paul’s violent shot. Four days later, he was back on track when Acuña’s center arrived, stopping, setting up and finishing with his left foot, all in less than a second.
In the Finalissima Against Italy, Lautaro needed 28 minutes and an assist from Messi to get the ball back into the back of the net. And in the friendly against Honduras in September, two months before the World Cup, he repeated with the help of Papu Gómez to score 21 goals.
The World Cup found him a candidate to break nets, but an ankle injury that forced him to infiltrate for every match prevented him from showing his best form and eventually lost his place in the eleven. On the debut against Saudi Arabia, he shouted twice in vain, as both goals, in which he defined with class, were canceled due to a forward position, one millimeter of which. On the second date, against Mexico, he had no clear chances on goal. And against Poland he lost the position at the hands of a Julián Álvarez who was much more active when it was his turn to come in.
From then on, the Bull would not play again from the start in Qatar, although it had its moment of glory against the Netherlands when it scored the decisive penalty that put the Albiceleste through to the semi-finals. Against Croatia he did not participate, while in the final he would only replace the Spider at the end of the first extra time and would play a decisive role in the little more than 15 minutes he played: Lautaro started the game that would lead to the third goal for the Albiceleste, which also led to a rebound from Lloris that pushed Messi into the goal, and had the last action of the game just after Dibu Martínez’s unforgettable save from Kolo Muani, but his header went wide of a stick.
After the World Cup, Martínez would regain his best form at Inter and would reach the FIFA March 2023 date as the world champion with the most goals since Qatar, with nine. However, in the first friendly match against Panama, he would come on as a substitute again. And although he came in at halftime, he couldn’t convert either. In this way, the Bull adds eight games in a row without scoring with the national team, his worst run since his national team debut. The final goal? The 1-0 against Honduras in the friendly match on September 23, 2022 that would end in a 3-0 win. Lautaro basically plays against Curaçao from the start and gets a chance to end the streak.
In total, the Bahian player played 37 games as a starting player and came off the bench in eight minutes, for a total of 2,892 minutes of play, which averages one shout every 136 minutes, just over a goal per game and a half. even far from the one that was practically in that of one per game.
ALL MATCHES OF LAUTARO MARTÍNEZ
Source: Goal