The Argentina national team, the reigning world champions and leaders of the South American qualifiers for the 2026 World Cup, face defeated Peru this Tuesday, with unknown star Lionel Messi in the starting line-up.

With three wins and a perfect record, Argentina is in first place in the World Cup with nine points, followed by Brazil and Colombia with 7 and 5 points.

Without Lionel Messi in the starting lineup, Argentina just beat Paraguay 1-0 at home. The Albiceleste are favorites to win over a depleted Peruvian team in a doubleheader that urgently needs to add three to get off the bottom of the table.

With two defeats and a draw, Peru enters the match defeated after losing 2:0 away to Chile.

Coach Lionel Scaloni will wait a few minutes before the game to confirm whether Messi will start. Against Paraguay, the Argentine star came on as a substitute and played 38 minutes.

“Leo is physically fine, but without rhythm due to a lack of continuity, so everyone’s idea (including himself) is to go little by little to recover his best version,” commented the Argentine sports press.

Scaloni will be without five world champions through injury, including strikers Ángel Di María and Paulo Dybala.

The star of the Argentina national team saw very few playing minutes after his stellar participation with the winning goal in the 1-0 victory over Ecuador in the first round.

In the second term, he did not play in La Paz against Bolivia (3-0), and then he did not play in five matches of Inter Miami in the American MLS.

After doing the last training in Buenos Aires, the Albiceleste were supposed to arrive in Lima on Monday evening. The undefeated Argentina team has not conceded any goals in the current edition of the South American qualifiers.

Goalkeeper Emiliano ‘Dibu’ Martínez was unbeaten for a total of 622 minutes with a goal.

Martínez’s last goal came in the 2022 World Cup final against France. He did not concede in seven games. They kept a clean sheet against Panama, Curacao, Australia, Indonesia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay.

The last time Peru and Argentina met in the qualifiers in Lima was on November 18, 2020. The match culminated in a 2:0 victory for the Albiceleste. In Lima, he won for the first time in 16 years.

The Peruvian team managed to collect only one point at the beginning of the long elimination. They drew without goals in Asunción against Paraguay and experienced two defeats (1-0) against Brazil in Lima and against Chile (2-0).

Coach Juan Reynos is criticized for his ultra-defensive system of play. Peru had not scored at the World Cup and veteran goalscorer Paolo Guerrero was called upon to end the losing streak.

“Three games were played. We are playing at home, we have to prepare well. We can’t make the same mistakes,” Guerrero said.

The Peruvian striker is a key player in the Liga de Quito, which will play the Copa Sudamericana final against Brazil’s Fortaleza on October 28 in Uruguay. In the semi-finals, he was a figurehead, scoring two of the three goals in the series.

Argentina is undefeated in 17 matches against Peru in the qualifiers (11 wins and 6 draws).

Peru’s last victory (1:0) was against Argentina in June 1985 in the qualifiers for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico with Diego Maradona on the field. (D)