Tottenham Hotspur star Cristian Romero helped Argentina get off to a winning start in their first game of Copa America 2024.
The World Champions are the favourites to win the biggest competition the Americas this summer, but it will not be easy.
Lionel Messi and his teammates came up against Canada late on Thursday night, and it wasn’t a straightforward game by any means. Argentina were made to work extremely hard.
However, goals from Julian Alvarez and Lautaro Martinez in the second half combined with a clean sheet at the back thanks to Romero and co sealed a 2-0 win.
Argentina’s media react to Cristian Romero’s performance vs Canada
Romero is one of Tottenham’s most important players, and that’s the case with the Argentina national team as well.
The 25-year-old is one of the first names on the team sheet in Lionel Scaloni’s side, and he often always delivers for the Albiceleste.
Against Canada on Thursday night, Romero was once again the main man at the back,
The Tottenham star started alongside Manchester United’s Lisandro Martinez, and although Argentina’s defence, as a whole, wasn’t great, they managed to keep a clean sheet.
Romero even made a potentially goal-saving interception late in the game, when the score was still 1-0 to the World Champions.
Reviewing his performance, TyC Sports in Argentina named Romero the star of the match and gave him an 8/10 rating.
They wrote: “Every time he anticipated, he lifted the stadium. He had a couple of providential saves.”
Ole gave Romero a 7.5/10 rating and wrote: “Great closure centimeters away from Dibu (Emiliano Martinez) in the box. Leader and owner of the ball at the back, without attacking.”
Romero’s stats vs Canada are just incredible
It’s not often that a player gets a higher rating than Messi, but Romero managed that on Tyc Sports’ scorecard against Canada.
The Tottenham man once again showed the world why he’s so highly rated. Individually, he was terrific at the back and should be really proud of his display.
In his 90 minutes on the pitch, Romero also had 108 touches of the ball and completed 91 of his 93 attempted passes, thus maintaining an incredible 98 per cent passing accuracy.
The Argentine also made six tackles, three clearances and an interception. He won every single one of his six ground duels and wasn’t dribbled past once in the entire game (SofaScore).
If Romero can keep performing in the same way, there’s every chance Argentina will win the Copa America this year.
