Scaloni admits Argentina scouted Spain before sealing final spot as World Cup showdown looms

Lionel Scaloni admitted Argentina had already begun scouting Spain before completing their semifinal comeback against England, with the Albiceleste now set to face La Roja in Sunday’s World Cup final just outside New York City.

The revelation came during the press conference that followed Argentina’s dramatic win over England on Wednesday — a match in which they trailed 1-0 with five minutes of regular time remaining before fighting back to advance. It was a low-key astonishing disclosure from a coach who had watched his side grind through adversity at every stage of the tournament.

“We’ve analyzed the game a little bit,” Scaloni said of Spain’s 2-0 win over France in Dallas on Tuesday. “It’s a great team. I would say they deserved to win that semifinal. They played very well. They beat a team that I thought was very difficult to beat, and they beat them squarely. We also saw them at that point as a potential rival. And now we’ve analyzed them a bit more.”

The admission speaks to a quiet confidence that has defined Scaloni’s tenure since he took charge in 2018. Under the 48-year-old, Argentina have won a World Cup and two Copa América titles in five years — a run that has made the prospect of defeat feel almost incomprehensible to the nation’s nearly 47 million citizens.

Scouting a potential final opponent before qualifying for it runs counter to the conventional coaching wisdom of controlling only what is immediately in front of you. Yet Scaloni appeared to regard it as a necessary precaution, given his players’ proven ability to manufacture results from desperate situations — none more so than the 2022 World Cup final, when Argentina surrendered two leads to France before prevailing on penalties.

“I think that this team plays the best when we are facing a difficult situation with adversity,” Scaloni said after the England win. “We had a challenging game, a challenging situation. We smelled blood in the water, and we went for it.”

The final carries additional personal significance for several members of the squad. Lionel Messi, who moved to Barcelona from Argentina as a child and holds Spanish citizenship, remains enormously popular across much of Spain despite having left Europe for Inter Miami in MLS three years ago. The match pits him against a nation that shaped his career, in what is likely one of his final appearances on the World Cup stage.