Latest news with #Argentina
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Lions 24-28 Argentina: Pumas deliver Dublin upset to win 1888 Cup in thriller
Dejected: The British and Irish Lions fell to a surprise defeat by Argentina in their 1888 Cup clash in Dublin on Friday night (AP) The British and Irish Lions made a hugely disappointing start to their summer as Argentina pulled off a deserved upset in Dublin. The Pumas, despite missing several key players due to Top 14 commitments in France, claimed the 1888 Cup with a thrilling 28-24 victory at the Aviva Stadium on Friday night, making it a damp squib of a farewell for Andy Farrell's side, who have plenty of work to do as they now head Down Under for a nine-game tour that includes three Tests against Australia. Advertisement It was the perfect warm-up for a looming two-Test home series against weakened England next month for Argentina, who achieved their first-ever win over the Lions at the eighth attempt in their first meeting for 20 years, successfully banishing memories of 2005, when they were denied a famous triumph by a last-gasp Jonny Wilkinson penalty for a flat Clive Woodward team in Cardiff. For the Lions, an unexpected early hiccup as they lost their summer opener for the first time since 1971, when they famously went on to beat the All Blacks in New Zealand. Powering through: Bundee Aki scored the first try of the summer for the British and Irish Lions (REUTERS) Argentina, ranked at No5 in the world and with victories over all of New Zealand, South Africa, France and Australia to their name in 2024, edged the early kicking battle and drew first blood when fly-half Tomas Albornoz made no mistake from the tee. Advertisement Duhan van der Merwe - who would later have his ankle iced on the bench after going off in the second half - looked to respond for the Lions, who thought they had hit back quickly before Luke Cowan-Dickie's score was chalked off for a knock-on. Fin Smith's first Lions points with a penalty levelled proceedings, only for Ignacio Mendy to then cut inside brilliantly and leave Van der Merwe in the dust as a scintillating Argentina attack was finished with a flourish. The conversion was hooked wide left by Albornoz. Scotland captain Sione Tuipulotu - starting as part of a formidable Lions centre partnership along with Bundee Aki - weaved through to dive over, but again the try was disallowed for a knock-on. The Lions did finally register their first try of the summer shy of the 20-minute mark, Aki powering through three defenders to touch down after Farrell's men continued their dominance at the scrum. Advertisement Fin Smith's extras had the Lions ahead for the first time by two points at 10-8, though Albornoz responded in kind after an infringement at the ruck after flanker Pablo Matera avoided a yellow card for a high hit on Fin Smith. Albornoz slotted over another penalty late in the first half after an offside call and then turned on the jets to streak home after the ball was knocked loose during a scruffy Lions attack, converting his own score to send the Pumas in at the break leading 21-10. The Lions started the second half in more patient fashion and got their reward with a penalty try given by New Zealand referee James Doleman after Argentina prop Mayco Vivas had pulled down a rolling maul in front of the line, earning himself a yellow card in the process. It was a double blow for the Pumas and they started to creak thereafter, Ellis Genge driving the Lions forward against 14 men with some enormously powerful carries. Celebration: Santiago Cordero's try sealed a famous victory for the Pumas at the Aviva Stadium (Getty Images) They got the go-ahead score as Genge made another terrific line break after an injection of pace and ingenuity at scrum-half from Tomos Williams, one of only two Wales players in the entire Lions squad along with Jac Morgan, Ireland's Tadhg Beirne sent through and Fin Smith making it a three-point lead from the tee. Advertisement Tommy Freeman and Mack Hansen were causing problems for the Lions, but suddenly they were behind again out of nowhere as Henry Pollock missed a tackle and man-of-the-match Albornoz broke forward, with Argentina recycling the ball brilliantly before a kick was collected and touched down by Santiago Cordero. Albornoz's conversion made it a four-point advantage and it was a lead that the Pumas would never relinquish despite soaking up plenty of late pressure, Hansen, Freeman and Pollock with the best of the play for the Lions, who attacked with the clock in the red but lost the ball with a strip as it was booted into touch to seal a famous Argentina win.
New York Times
2 hours ago
- Sport
- New York Times
Enzo Fernandez, from Benfica to Chelsea: Is he finally justifying the £106m fee?
Benfica are not rooting for Enzo Fernandez to become a world champion this time around. Back in December 2022, the sight of Fernandez lifting the World Cup trophy in Qatar was celebrated vicariously in the red corner of Lisbon as it was in his home city of Buenos Aires. He had come into the competition as a substitute and his elevation into Lionel Scaloni's starting XI after scoring a spectacular goal off the bench in a 2-0 win against Mexico had changed the trajectory of Argentina's tournament, rebalancing the midfield supply lines into Lionel Messi. Advertisement Fernandez had been a Benfica player for only six months then, but it was already clear the club would make a huge profit on the €10million (£8.5m; $12m at current rates) fee, plus €8million in add-ons, paid to acquire him from River Plate in the summer of 2022. The only question was when. Roger Schmidt's Benfica side had gone into the World Cup break leading the Primeira Liga by eight points and had topped their Champions League group above Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus. Fernandez had quickly established himself as the playmaking hub of a dominant midfield. Despite Benfica's determination to preserve the core of a potentially special team, Fernandez returned to Portugal with Chelsea hot in pursuit. He had to be convinced to play in a 3-0 loss to Braga, then jetted back to Argentina for New Year celebrations. Having been dropped for the following league match against Portimonense, he returned and scored in a cup win against Varzim, celebrating by tapping the club badge on his shirt in a sign widely interpreted as affirming his desire to stay. Three weeks later, he joined Chelsea. 'We lost a great player but I'm not going to cry for a player who doesn't want to represent Benfica,' club president Rui Costa told BTV after reluctantly signing off the January deadline day deal, which valued Fernandez at his €121million release clause. 'He showed no commitment to Benfica. Here I thought he couldn't play for Benfica anymore. As a fan, I didn't want this player anymore, as a manager it wasn't a solution either and he couldn't enter the locker room again. That's when I decided to let him go.' Fernandez fought hard to get to Chelsea, at the cost of any lingering goodwill from Benfica, despite the huge financial windfall his sale delivered. The midfielder has arguably had to fight even harder to begin to justify the energy and expense required to bring him to Stamford Bridge two and a half years ago. Advertisement The version of Fernandez that will take to the field for the Club World Cup last-16 meeting between Chelsea and Benfica on Saturday has evolved considerably. The notion of Fernandez as the positional and spiritual successor to Jorginho at the heart of Chelsea's midfield is in the past. Mauricio Pochettino, Chelsea's head coach at the time, privately questioned whether his countryman was defensively impactful enough to be deployed as a deep-lying 'No 6' or creative enough to be a more attack-minded 'No 8' in central midfield. More often, Pochettino cast him as the latter. Pochettino's successor, Enzo Maresca, has come up with a more nuanced solution. 'When we have the ball, he is playing like an attacking midfielder and is dropping next to Moises Caicedo when we don't have the ball to give us defensive balance,' the Italian said of Fernandez in October. It helps that Fernandez is now fit enough to go from box to box at Premier League intensity, which was not the case when he arrived from Benfica in the middle of the 2022-23 season. 'The first six months, the first year with Pochettino, was very difficult for me physically, but then I had to start training extra because what I did in the morning was not enough,' he said in an interview with Argentine journalist Gaston Edul at Chelsea's Cobham HQ last month. 'As time went by, I got the results and (now) I feel very good physically.' The requirements of his role in Maresca's system have significantly re-modelled Fernandez's game. Last season, the 24-year-old recorded by far the fewest number of touches (67.6) and attempted passes (58.1) per 90 minutes of his career. His influence on Chelsea's sequences of possession is almost entirely focused on the left 'pocket' or half-space, operating alongside Cole Palmer as one of two advanced creators in a 'box' midfield. Fernandez's adaptation has been painful at times. In the first half of last season, it was reasonable to wonder if he had a logical position in Chelsea's best XI. Maresca himself appeared to wrestle with that question, benching the Argentinian for four Premier League games in a row in October and admitting he preferred the 'physicality' offered by Romeo Lavia's midfield partnership with Caicedo. Advertisement But in recent months, Fernandez has demonstrated his value to Chelsea's attack, creating chances more efficiently in the final third and offering an auxiliary goal threat. His arrival in the penalty area to convert Liam Delap's cross against Los Angeles FC was not surprising — it mirrored the run he made to score a vital early winner against Liverpool in early May. While the frequency of his shot attempts has actually dipped slightly relative to last season (1.6 per 90 minutes, down from 1.8), the average distance of his shots has shrunk over his Chelsea career (25.7 yards in 2022-23, 21.3 yards in 2023-24, 18.1 yards in 2024-25) and perhaps not coincidentally he is finishing more clinically. Fernandez also credits the time he has spent with a sports psychologist for a mental breakthrough. 'The first year and a half I was here wasn't easy,' he said in his interview with Edul. 'Moving countries — I had been in Lisbon before for six months — everything was new, a new language. Being with my family was also difficult. Here (in England), by 3 pm it was already night, and living day-to-day life was difficult until I got psychological help. 'I started to share what I felt and as time went by, I started feeling better. Then everything became much easier.' Fernandez was directly involved in 13 goals in the Premier League (six goals and seven assists, his best attacking numbers in Europe) and scored and assisted in Chelsea's comeback win over Real Betis in last month's Conference League final, nodding in the equaliser from Palmer's inviting cross. He has carried that form to the United States, building on his goal against LAFC with a clever dinked pass to help Delap score his first goal for the club against ES Tunis. 'He's told me to run when he gets the ball,' Delap told reporters after the match. Fernandez has already made more than double the number of appearances for Chelsea that he made for River and Benfica combined, and a significant number of them while wearing the captain's armband. Maresca has always described him as a 'reference' for his team on the pitch, but such status carries more credibility now that it appears there are no enduring dressing-room issues from the racist Argentina team bus song video that overshadowed last summer. Advertisement That seems to have been consigned to history, along with his all-too-brief stint in Lisbon. Benfica will only delight in this reunion if they win, but recent history suggests Fernandez could play a big part in sending them home. You can sign up to DAZN to watch every FIFA Club World Cup game for free
The Independent
5 hours ago
- Sport
- The Independent
Enzo Fernandez ‘will be even better' next season insists Enzo Maresca
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca expects Enzo Fernandez to get even better as he prepares for a reunion with his former club Benfica. The Argentina midfielder, signed from the Portuguese giants for a then British record £106.8million two years ago, took time to find his feet at Stamford Bridge. But he excelled in the second half of the 2024-25 season, finishing the campaign with eight goals, and has continued to shine at the Club World Cup. The 24-year-old scored in the opening win over Los Angeles FC and created two goals in as many minutes as the Blues beat Esperance Tunis 3-0 in their final group game on Tuesday. Their reward is a last-16 clash with Benfica in Charlotte on Saturday. Maresca told reporters at his pre-match press conference: 'I'm very pleased with Enzo, especially because, first of all, he's a nice boy. He's polite, he's a good boy. 'Then he's worked very well in all aspects inside the pitch, outside the pitch. Our struggle at the beginning was (for him) to understand the way we want to play. 'But he is doing fantastic in terms of numbers, goal assists. This is what we want from our attacking players. 'I've said many times that I prefer to have the attacking players score 10-12 goal each, rather than just a striker with 40 goals. 'So his contribution this season has been top and I am sure next season will be even better.' Despite that, Fernandez could face competition for his place after Maresca suggested he sees Brazilian Andrey Santos more as an attacking player than a defensive one. The highly-rated 21-year-old has rejoined the club this summer after a successful loan spell at Strasbourg and made his debut as a second-half substitute against Esperance. Maresca said: 'His season has been very good but I think you need time to adapt. 'In terms of position, I see Andrey in this moment in more like Enzo's position than Romeo's (Lavia) position. 'The Premier League demands (players) to be physically strong. In this moment, I see Andrey more of an attacking player than defensive in the field.' Maresca added that he hopes 19-year-old defender Josh Acheampong will stay with the club despite being linked with Newcastle and Borussia Dortmund. He said: 'My idea or my plan with Josh is quite clear. I think he potentially can be a top defender for this club. I feel the best plan for Josh is to be with us.' Maresca would also like England international Trevoh Chalobah to stay, but offered no guarantees. He said: 'All the players that are here with us, I don't want to lose them but when the transfer window is open, unfortunately, anything can happen – not only for Trevoh, for (all) the 25 players of the squad.' Maresca expects a tight contest against Benfica. He said: 'It's going to be a balanced game, a tough game. In this kind of game the small details are very important.'
The Guardian
10 hours ago
- Sport
- The Guardian
Expect Farrell's frustrations to vanish: the Lions will prioritise hunger and energy
The British & Irish Lions' defeat by Argentina will have been shaken out of their system even before the jet lag. It is not difficult to draw a line under it. The tour starts when boots are on the ground in Australia and listening to the noises coming out of the camp, I'd be amazed if Andy Farrell is voicing the same frustrations after Saturday's match against Western Force. The handling errors against the Pumas stood out. I don't mind so much those that were committed in aerial contests – though there were a lot in open play as well – but I think what really frustrated Farrell is that Argentina appeared to be playing with more urgency at the breakdown and when it came to feeding off the loose scraps. The first match is always difficult. There is so much goodwill, so much energy behind the first Lions game of a tour that it can be hard not to force things, not to get carried away with a determination to impress. Bear in mind that Argentina are ranked fifth in the world and the Lions will not face another challenge like the Pumas until we get into the Test series. Clearly there was a desire to move the ball and keep it alive – and I always say that what we see on the pitch is a reflection of what has been worked on in training – but some of the decision-making let the Lions down. Whether it be a two-on-one on the edge that Marcus Smith ought to have spotted, or Duhan van der Merwe's failure to pass inside to Alex Mitchell. The expectation on Saturday is that the Lions demonstrate better decision-making and better accuracy, all underpinned by improvements according to Farrell's frustrations – namely hunger, desire and energy. I'm encouraged by the team that Farrell has selected and while I don't think it will be the Test team, I would have no problem with this XV lining up against the Wallabies. I like the blend of the backline, with pace, creativity and power and the fact that there is plenty of familiarity given the number of Leinster and Ireland players selected can only be a good thing. Last week there were certain similarities in what the Lions were trying to achieve in attack with how Farrell's Ireland go about things and that makes obvious sense. I would say that Ireland have the best attacking framework and structure of the four home nations so it stands to reason. When I talk about structure it can sound like a negative thing, like it can be constraining, but that doesn't have to be the case. Excuse the analogy but when I was doing Strictly Come Dancing, I thought that ballroom dancing would be really quite boring because it was all about 'the frame'. What I soon realised is once you've got the frame built and set, it effectively just becomes a pillar in the foundation. What you do within that frame – shoulders back, traps down, elbows high, fingers pointing, neck long, chin to 45 degrees – once you've got those principles in place, you can do whatever you want. So when it comes to the Lions' attacking structure, it looked similar to that of Ireland but that doesn't mean there is no room for players to act on instinct. A good example was Mitchell's pass out the back when recovering near his own line and I'd have liked to see a bit more of it. I was a bit surprised there was no attempt to tap and go, to up the tempo that little bit more. At this stage it is too early to read too much into combinations and what implications they might have for the Test team. It will only become apparent by the third match of the tour in Australia. Maro Itoje isn't playing Saturday but that's likely because Farrell wants to see him lining up alongside another second row and the time is not yet right for that. Sign up to The Breakdown The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewed after newsletter promotion That said, this is certainly an opportunity for Henry Pollock, who had a mixed introduction off the bench against Argentina, while it will be interesting to see how Tadhg Beirne fares in the back row after the lineout troubles against the Pumas last week. I don't think it's unfair to say that the Lions should beat Western Force emphatically. They are the worst-ranked Australian team in Super Rugby whereas the Lions are now fully stacked, barring the odd injury niggle and Farrell will want them to go out and deliver a statement. The noise has already started coming from one or two former Australia players, claiming even that the Wallabies will whitewash the Lions. I love it when the noise starts but that is quite simply an incredible claim. I don't mean to get all Chris Whitty, but we have to follow the evidence and it simply doesn't exist to suggest the Lions will be whitewashed. Bold statements like that do, however, signal that the tour is up and running.
BBC News
11 hours ago
- Sport
- BBC News
Blackpool sign Argentine keeper Ravizzoli
Blackpool have signed Argentine goalkeeper Franco Ravizzoli following his release from Wycombe Wanderers at the end of last 27-year-old made 42 league appearances for the Chairboys across two seasons following his move from MK Dons in represented both Independiente and River Plate's youth teams before moving to England and then sixth-tier club Eastbourne Borough in 2020."Franco has had an impressive couple of seasons at this level, and we're looking forward to watching him progress further in his career here at Blackpool," Tangerines boss Steve Bruce told the club website., external
