Home ›› 01 Jun 2022 ›› Sport
Argentina, the South American Champions, will take on Italy, the European Champions, in a historic clash at the Wembley Stadium in England on Wednesday for the CONMEBOL–UEFA Cup of Champions title, nicknamed ‘The Finalissima 2022’.
This is the first time the Champions of Europe and South America will face off in 29 years. The first was in 1985, when France defeated Uruguay to win the title, while Argentina won it the last time it was held in 1993, beating Denmark on penalties.
Coincidentally, Argentina are playing for the newly-designed trophy after winning their first title in 29 years. They had become South American Champions 29 years ago in 1993 and repeated the feat for the first time in 2021, beating Brazil 1-0 in the final.
Italy, on the contrary, have a complex situation on their hands going into the match. The unbeaten European Champions, who won the Euro 2020 by beating England on penalties, failed to qualify for the World Cup for the second consecutive time after they lost to North Macedonia in the play-offs. Thus, Italy might be extra motivated to win the title as they will not have a shot at football’s biggest glory in Qatar later this year.
On the other hand, Argentina qualified for the World Cup by finishing second in the South American qualifiers and are looking at the match as a battle to test themselves.
“It’s always good to play against a strong opponent. Argentinian players, the ones that play for the national team, play for the love of the crest and their family, their friends. It was always like that, and now it’s even more so,” Argentina head coach Lionel
Scaloni said.
Italy coach Roberto Mancini said that the fans are with them despite their disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign.
“We should have qualified for the World Cup, but some details didn’t go our way. We have a young team. We have to start again, the supporters are still behind us despite what happened,” he said.
The biggest focus of the match will be on Argentina skipper Lionel Messi, who comes off a difficult season after his shock move to PSG from Barcelona. The Argentine only had six goals in his debut Ligue 1 campaign but will still be Italy’s biggest threat.
Messi, though, is aware of Italy’s threat and said the European Champions not qualifying for the World Cup was ‘crazy’.
“What happened with Italy is crazy, having won the Euros and not being at the World Cup, given Italy’s history at the World Cup.
“If Italy had been at the World Cup, they would have been one of the favourites. They were unlucky. No one would have wanted to play them,” the Argentina captain said.
Argentina and Italy do not face off regularly, with this tie being the first in four years. The last time these two teams met was in 2018 when Argentina won 2-0.
In case of recent form, Argentina are currently on a 31-match unbeaten streak, including seven wins in their last 10 matches.
Italy, on the other hand, Italy have won only three out of their nine matches since Euro 2020, including the defeat to North Macedonia that saw them out of the World Cup.
Both teams will go into the match to secure another title, but while Messi & co. will look to make it their second in a year, Italy will seek to have this as they will not have the chance to bring the big one home later this year.
