{"id":8770,"date":"2023-11-16T05:15:46","date_gmt":"2023-11-15T23:45:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/16\/messi-fit-for-argentina-world-cup-qualifiers-says-scaloni\/"},"modified":"2023-11-16T05:15:46","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T23:45:46","slug":"messi-fit-for-argentina-world-cup-qualifiers-says-scaloni","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/2023\/11\/16\/messi-fit-for-argentina-world-cup-qualifiers-says-scaloni\/","title":{"rendered":"Messi fit for Argentina World Cup qualifiers, says Scaloni"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi will be fit for Argentina\u2019s World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil despite his lack of game time, coach Lionel Scaloni said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s Inter Miami side was eliminated before the MLS playoffs and he has been out of action for almost a month in the middle of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMessi is fine, he is doing well. Even though he\u2019s played one game in the last 25 days, he\u2019s been training normally, he\u2019s fit and good,\u201d Scaloni told a press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

WATCH | Lionel Messi\u2019s 8th Ballon D\u2019Or trophy celebrated by Inter Miami in exhibition match<\/a><\/p>\n

Argentina faces Uruguay on Thursday before playing Brazil next Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Record eight-time Ballon d\u2019Or winner Messi played his last match with Inter Miami on October 21, with the team failing to make the MLS playoffs after winning the Leagues Cup in August.<\/p>\n

Messi\u2019s brace gave Argentina a 2-0 victory over Peru last month.<\/p>\n

Scaloni could not hide his excitement at coming up against his former Argentina coach Marcelo Bielsa, who is now in charge of Uruguay.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of us who have passed through his hands (as a coach) are marked. It\u2019s a satisfaction to be able to face him and greet him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Argentina is top of the South American qualifying group with 12 points after four wins from four matches. Uruguay is second with seven points, level with third-placed Brazil and fourth-placed Venezuela.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis team has already shown that it is capable of playing against any opponent… We will rise to the occasion, we are ready to compete,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

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\nComments\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lionel Messi will be fit for Argentina\u2019s World Cup qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil despite his lack of game time, coach Lionel Scaloni said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":8771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football-sport-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8770"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8770\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baysidesports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}