Gary Neville has praised Cristian Romero after the Tottenham Hotspur defender helped Argentina to a 2-0 win over Mexico.
This was do or die for Argentina after an embarrassing 2-1 defeat at the hands of Saudi Arabia.
Argentina needed a hero at 0-0 against Mexico and they had one in Lionel Messi.
Messi fired an inch-perfect drive into the corner to put Argentina 1-0 up before then setting up Enzo Fernandez to seal a 2-0 win.
Gary Neville has praised Cristian Romero
Argentina still have plenty of work to do and need to pick up a result against Poland to be sure of qualification to the last 16.
Still, this is the shot in the arm they needed and Messi is understandably earning all of the plaudits.
Yet Gary Neville also offered praise to Tottenham Hotspur defender Cristian Romero for his impact.
Romero started against Saudi Arabia but looked off the pace with some uncharacteristically hesitant defending allowing their equaliser.
Romero was substituted in that game and looked to still be struggling having missed around a month through injury.
It was therefore no surprise when Argentina boss Lionel Scaloni decided to bench Romero for Saturday’s clash with Mexico.
With Argentina 1-0 up, Scaloni decided to bring on Romero for Angel Di Maria in a very defensive move.
Romero joined Nicolas Otamendi and Lisandro Martinez in a back three, allowing Marcos Acuna and Nahuel Molina to go forward as wing backs.
That seemed to give Argentina a nice balance and Neville like what he saw.
Neville told ITV Sport that Argentina suddenly had more aggression when Romero came on – something Tottenham fans will understand perfectly.
Neville felt Romero’s introduction and the tactical change just gave Argentina more energy and helped them kill off the game.
“I liked when they went to five at the back, they did at the start of the second half by dropping one of the midfield players in,” said Neville. “Then they brought Romero on and all of a sudden they looked a lot more aggressive, I thought the three in midfield had a lot more energy and then with Alvarez and Messi up front as a two, you can build from a solid foundation,” he added.
Scaloni will now have to weigh up whether this approach can work going forward – and that may give Romero a route back into the Argentina starting XI.