Martinez: Mauritania Players Fought 'As If Their Lives Depended On It'

Argentina national team goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez expressed his desire for his teammates to show "more passion" on the field, following a "poor" performance in a friendly match against Mauritania in Buenos Aires, which Lionel Messi's side won 2-1.

The "Albiceleste" goalkeeper was candid in his assessment of his team's collective performance, which struggled against Mauritania. He stated: "It was a very bad performance. It was one of the worst matches we've played, even if it was a friendly. We lacked determination."

In a related context, Argentina was unable to play the "Finalissima" scheduled in Qatar against Spain, which pits the European champions against the Copa America champions, due to the situation in the Middle East. This prompted them to hastily arrange two friendly matches against Mauritania and Zambia during the current international break. The Aston Villa goalkeeper added: "Thank God we didn't play the Finalissima, because we would have lost."

'Dibu' reiterated: "We won, we didn't know the opponent well. They played the match as if they were playing for their lives. It's true that we haven't played together for a long time, and we also rotated the squad. Perhaps we played with less intensity today out of fear of injury, but when you wear the national team jersey, you must perform much better."

It is worth noting that the Argentina national team will play a second friendly match next Wednesday (00:15 GMT+1) against Zambia.