{"id":45843,"date":"2026-03-27T13:08:30","date_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:38:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/?p=45843"},"modified":"2026-03-27T13:08:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-27T07:38:30","slug":"argentina-vs-mauritania-will-lionel-messi-be-in-the-starting-xi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/football\/argentina-vs-mauritania-will-lionel-messi-be-in-the-starting-xi\/","title":{"rendered":"Argentina vs Mauritania: Will Lionel Messi be in the starting XI?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Football fans everywhere can feel the energy building as Argentina gets set to face Mauritania in a friendly this Friday, <strong>March 27, 2026<\/strong>. The match goes down at La Bombonera one of the world\u2019s most famous stadiums and it\u2019s no casual occasion. This is Argentina\u2019s last stretch before the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and the defending champs are treating it seriously.<\/p>\n<p>All eyes are on <strong>Lionel Messi<\/strong>. Now 38 and <strong>four caps shy of 200<\/strong>, he looks primed to start after rejoining the national team. Sources from training in Buenos Aires say Messi\u2019s been flat-out, working closely with his teammates. He\u2019s expected to line up either next to Juli\u00e1n \u00c1lvarez or to drop deeper and pull the strings behind the striker. In fact, nearly every predicted lineup has Messi right there in the attack.<\/p>\n<p>Coach Lionel Scaloni isn\u2019t messing around. He\u2019s sticking with his best, rolling out a likely starting XI that features <strong>Emiliano Mart\u00ednez in goal<\/strong>, a solid backline with <strong>Molina, Romero, Otamendi,<\/strong> and <strong>Tagliafico<\/strong>; midfielders <strong>De Paul, Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez,<\/strong> and <strong>Mac Allister<\/strong>; and up top, a <strong>trio of Thiago Almada, Messi, and \u00c1lvarez.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>With <strong>Messi<\/strong> possibly appearing for one of his <strong>last matches<\/strong> in Argentina before the World Cup, emotions are running high. You can almost feel the buzz as tickets, unsurprisingly, vanish fast. Fans want a glimpse of their captain before the big tournament<\/p>\n<p>Facing Mauritania doesn\u2019t bring the same heat as a heavyweight duel, but it\u2019s perfect for Scaloni to tinker with his lineup and give his stars some breathing room, without much risk. For the fans, it\u2019s one more chance to see Messi weave his magic at home<\/p>\n<p>Some players have been nursing minor injuries Lautaro Mart\u00ednez, for example, is dealing with a calf problem but Messi\u2019s spot in the lineup looks about as certain as it gets. Expect him to either go the distance or play until the crowd gets their fill.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Match Details:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u2022<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><strong>Date<\/strong>: Friday, March 27, 2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2022<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><strong>Venue<\/strong>: La Bombonera, Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00a0 <\/span><strong>Broadcast<\/strong>: yet to be announced<\/p>\n<p>The official lineup drops soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Football fans everywhere can feel the energy building as Argentina gets set to face Mauritania in a friendly this Friday,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":502,"featured_media":45844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[660,4049,487],"class_list":["post-45843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","tag-argentina","tag-fifa-world-cup-2026","tag-lionel-messi"],"reading_time":"2 min read","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/502"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45843"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45843\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45851,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45843\/revisions\/45851"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.businessupturn.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}