How Argentina produced their best performance for years – and without Lionel Messi

It’s not an exaggeration to suggest that some of Argentina’s football in their 4-1 World Cup qualifying win against Brazil on Tuesday was the best the game’s international stage has witnessed for years.

Brazil simply couldn’t get close — right from the first whistle. Argentina kicked off at the Estadio Monumental in Buenos Aires… and held the ball for fully two minutes before the visitors managed to get their first touch.

Those 42 unbroken passes from the start represented quite a statement. By way of reference, there have been 289 Premier League matches this season, and no club have completed more than 11 straight passes from kick-off.

Even in the very different context of the South American international game, where the tempo of play is slightly more relaxed and teams retain possession in deep positions without being pressured immediately, this was quite something. Argentina were setting out their stall, and preparing us for one of the best exhibitions of national team football you’ll see.

That they did so without Lionel Messi made this display even more impressive.

With their captain absent through injury, Argentina used a system that was depicted as 4-1-4-1 on the pre-match television graphics, with Leandro Paredes in the holding role. In the defensive phase, it looked more like 4-4-1-1, with Alexis Mac Allister alongside Paredes and Enzo Fernandez as the advanced midfielder.

But, in truth, the system Argentina played often defied the usual notation.

It was a more flexible and fluid system than their players are accustomed to using in European club football, with wide midfielders Rodrigo De Paul and Thiago Almada taking up very narrow positions and then making sudden sprints out to the flanks. Argentina didn’t always hold permanent width, and their players were encouraged to gather together and combine in short spaces, confusing Brazil’s defensive approach and allowing them to play quick triangles to get in behind.

Up front, Julian Alvarez led the line brilliantly, bustling his way in behind to score the opening goal, but also dropping short to link play and encourage various midfielders to run beyond him. “We humbly did our job and played a great game,” he said afterwards. “We gave them a show.”

Here’s an example of the strange role played by Argentina’s notional wide players.

Almada is initially in a central midfield position then suddenly, almost without warning, makes a 40-yard diagonal run out to the left flank, leaving Brazil unsure how to mark him.

Another feature of Argentina’s game was how they often hugely overloaded one flank, getting lots of blue-and-white shirts around the man in possession to provide him with lots of short passing options.

Here’s an example of that after 10 minutes, with De Paul (the blue dot nearest the bottom of the frame) narrowing his position rather than holding the width.

And here’s a similar instance a minute later. This time, Nahuel Molina has moved forward from right-back to provide the width on the near side, but look how many Argentina players are crowding around the ball on the opposite flank, and also look at the huge distance between Molina and his nearest team-mate.

Here’s another example of Argentina’s right flank being completely bare.

But this was a deliberate strategy, and it worked out excellently for their second goal.

Once again, Argentina have a huge number of players positioned towards the left side of the pitch, and seemingly absolutely nobody over on the right.

But by playing towards one flank, they were dragging Brazil across to that side, too. And that opened up a huge amount of space on the other wing for Molina to burst into.

He provided a cross, which was deflected into the path of Fernandez…

… who turned the ball home.

Here’s another — albeit less successful — example of the unusual fluidity of Argentina’s side.

It begins with De Paul, the right-sided midfielder on paper, collecting the ball in an inside-right position. He now dribbles diagonally, towards their left flank.

He then lays the ball off to Nicolas Tagliafico, who is pushing forward from left-back.

When the cross eventually comes, it’s very deep and goes over everyone. There’s nobody to collect the ball at the far post…

…so De Paul has to go out there himself to collect it.

Ordinarily, you’d expect him to have filled that zone on the break — or at least for a team-mate to have seen the open space and filled it themselves.

But this is what the current Argentina side are all about. They’re positionally unpredictable, content to disregard the concept of zones, happy to crowd around the ball on one flank to drag opponents out of position, and keen to exploit any space created with sudden runs.

It’s something of a rejection of the recent consensus in football; that structure is the most important part of the game. Argentina aren’t the only side seeking to move away from that approach, but coming from the world champions, who are also No 1 in the FIFA rankings, it feels significant.

The question for the future is how Messi fits in next summer.

He will turn 39 midway through the World Cup and for all his brilliance at the previous one, it’s undeniable that Argentina’s side was based around him to an absurd extent in Qatar, with Alvarez having to lead the line, drop back into midfield and get through Messi’s defensive work.

Argentina gambled on their talisman’s individual quality being enough, and that approach was justified in the end. By the time Messi is three and a half years older in July 2026, it might not be worth manager Lionel Scaloni putting all his eggs in that basket.

Not when Argentina can produce a display as wonderful as this with Messi on his sofa in Miami.

But that debate can wait.

For now, this was a special performance from a superb side, and a hint at how football’s next tactical era might look.

(Top photo: Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)