Argentina coach angry with Martinez

Martinez caused controversy in the match against Brazil. Photo: Reuters .

In the 67th minute of a 2026 World Cup qualifier at home, Martínez received the ball from Nicolas Otamendi and performed a juggling act in front of the Brazilian players. This action immediately excited the crowd, who chanted his name: "Dibu, Dibu!"

However, coach Scaloni stood on the sidelines and made gestures of protest, clearly showing his disagreement with Martinez's actions. After the match, the Aston Villa goalkeeper shared: "Those are things that I sometimes don't do at the club. I only juggle the ball when there is space, but that's okay. I know the coach doesn't like that. It seemed like if I juggled the ball three more times he would take me off the field. The coach was quite angry."

This match also marked Martínez’s 51st appearance for the national team. This statistic puts him in the top 3 goalkeepers with the most appearances for the national team, behind Sergio Romero and Ubaldo Fillol. With 36 clean sheets and only 22 goals conceded, Martinez has proven himself worthy of being Argentina’s number one goalkeeper.

"We treated it like a final," added Martínez. "The team didn't care about qualifying for the World Cup before the game, they just wanted to win. That was very clear."

According to statistics from Flashcore , this is the first time since 1959 that Argentina has scored 4 goals against Brazil in an official match, not counting friendlies.

Goals in the match where Argentina crushed Brazil In the 2026 World Cup qualifiers on the morning of March 26, Brazil lost 1-4 to Argentina.

Source: https://znews.vn/hlv-tuyen-argentina-noi-gian-voi-martinez-post1541121.html