Argentina and Spain were supposed to play the “Finalissima” this weekend, for intercontinental bragging rights between the winners of the 2024 Copa América and Euro 2024. The game was supposed to be played in Qatar, but due to the “security situation” going on in the region, UEFA decided to cancel the game. One would think that the match could simply be moved somewhere else — say, Spain, where Argentina and Spain have both ended up this week anyway — but apparently no such solution was able to be found.
So instead, both teams picked up some even more meaningless friendlies, with Argentina playing Mauritania, of all teams, and Spain taking on Serbia (who were set to play Qatar in a friendly originally). So of course both Enzo Fernández and Marc Cucurella would be involved still, with the latter even playing the full-90 in Spain’s easy 3-0 win over a Serbia who seem a shadow of their former selves.
Enzo also put in a solid shift, with nearly 60 minutes of action, plus a nice goal to get the scoring started in Argentina’s 2-1 win. It’s been Enzo’s best season of his career in terms of goals scored, so it’s nice to see him continue that habit — especially by arriving at the right time in the right place in the penalty area.
Elsewhere, Cole Palmer put in a good shift off the bench for England, who would be held to a 1-1 draw by Uruguay. Palmer did not get on the scoresheet (Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a sitter that was set up by Palmer’s cross, in fairness), but it’s nice to see him starting to get some of his mojo back.
Thomas Tuchel had some nice words about our talisman in the build-up to the game; Tommy T would surely love a fully functioning Palmer at the World Cup this summer.
“We saw good data lately. I saw him live against Arsenal and for the first time in a long time, I had the feeling his stride was back to the original lengths. Before, I felt he was not free and the stride was not long enough, the acceleration was not there and the movement was not free.
“I got the feedback from him and the feedback from Chelsea was that he felt during this game he was much, much better and he had a very strong game against Aston Villa with a huge physical output that we could see and from there, that was the first step. Before, we saw the physical output is matching also like the impression we have that was lacking something, but he is back to full confidence and we see it in training.”
-Thomas Tuchel; source: Yahoo! Sports
Let’s hope he’s right!
