Seven-nil. That's the score from Buenos Aires Saturday night, Argentina over Burkina Faso. Sounds impressive until you find out who Burkina Faso actually sent.
Their real squad got stuck somewhere, travel problems apparently, so what showed up at El Monumental was basically a backup team, mostly kids pulled from the under-23s. Argentina steamrolled them. Not exactly a shock when you put it that way.
Still, goals are goals, and Lautaro Martinez got the ball rolling early, 4th minute. The penalty call that set it up was questionable too, no VAR because it's just a friendly, so the ref's word was final. Burkina Faso's keeper actually saved the first shot. Didn't matter. Martinez buried the rebound.
Four minutes after that, 2-0, off a deflection that bounced in after a shot from Alvarez. Then the kid I mentioned, Prestianni, 19 years old, scored his first-ever goal for the senior team in the 12th minute. That's the kind of moment that probably mattered more to him personally than it did to literally anyone watching.
Argentina barely slowed down. Paz scored in the 34th minute. Alvarez added one a minute later. 5-0 before halftime, which, yeah, that's basically game over before the break even hits.
With the result already decided, Scaloni cleared the bench and started testing things out. Couple of debuts happened, Tomas Palacios and Valentin Barco both got their first senior caps.
Franco Mastantuono, who just moved from Real Madrid to Fiorentina, scored his first Argentina goal in the 57th minute. 6-0. Then right at the death, stoppage time, Giuliano Simeone added a seventh.
By full time the numbers tell the whole story. Argentina had 75 percent of the ball and put 17 shots on target out of 30 total. Burkina Faso had one shot on target. One.
What's interesting is how Argentine media covered it afterward, not like a dominant win worth bragging about, more like something a little awkward. La Nacion basically said the scoreline told you almost nothing about what actually happened on the pitch. VAVEL went further, called it disjointed and out of context, played in front of a quiet, half-interested crowd.
None of that erases Argentina's performance on paper. But it does explain why thrashing a team with real pedigree in African football felt more like a glorified training session than a real test.
This wasn't a standalone match either. It's the second of three friendlies Argentina are playing this window, after beating Bolivia 4-0 earlier in the week. And the third match, the one that actually matters emotionally, comes Tuesday.
Lionel Messi's farewell game. His last one in an Argentina shirt, officially closing out international career after he announced retirement from the national team back in August.
Given that, Saturday starts to make a lot more sense as a dress rehearsal, not a real test. Scaloni got to hand out debuts, rest guys, manage minutes, all with one eye on Tuesday the whole time.
Everyone's attention shifts to Tuesday now. Nobody's going to remember this 7-0 scoreline by next week, not with Messi's actual send-off coming right behind it. For Scaloni, this was just a useful look at depth. For everyone else, it's basically a footnote before the real event.
