Argentina boss: We're no longer reliant on Messi

Argentina person learned to header with Lionel Messi's absences and nary longer request to rejig the lineup erstwhile the Inter Miami guardant is not available, manager Lionel Scaloni said up of Wednesday's World Cup qualifier against Colombia.

Since making his elder debut successful 2005, Messi has scored 112 goals successful 192 appearances for Argentina, winning the World Cup successful 2022, 2 Copa América titles and a golden medal astatine the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The 37-year-old skipper missed Argentina's 1-0 triumph implicit Uruguay and 4-1 thrashing of rivals Brazil successful March owed to injury, with Scaloni's broadside securing their spot astatine the 2026 World Cup during that planetary break.

He returned to the squad for this month's World Cup qualifiers and made a substitute quality successful Argentina's 1-0 win implicit Chile past week.

"The squad is present successful a infinitesimal wherever it tin play successful the aforesaid mode with Leo [Messi] oregon without Leo, which utilized to beryllium much analyzable successful the past arsenic we had to alteration immoderate players," Scaloni told reporters up of the lucifer successful Buenos Aires.

"But present we don't person this necessity and the squad works successful the aforesaid way, that's good."

While Argentina person already qualified for the World Cup successful North America, Colombia are successful the sixth and last automatic qualification spot and volition beryllium looking to enactment immoderate region betwixt themselves and seventh-placed Venezuela with a win.

Colombia bushed Argentina 2-1 erstwhile the sides past met successful the World Cup qualifiers successful September.

"It's a large team, and with large players, and it has a wide benignant that tin enactment you successful trouble," Scaloni said.

"We've analysed it, we've shown the players their strengths and what we privation to instrumentality vantage of. It's going to beryllium a bully game, particularly due to the fact that we play astatine home, truthful it's bully for our radical to spot the players."