Inter Milan captain Lautaro Martinez is set to drop to the bench in the Argentina national team’s upcoming friendly against Costa Rica.
This according to Argentine broadcaster TyC Sports, via FCInterNews. The broadcaster anticipates that it will be Manchester City’s Julian Alvarez who instead leads the line for the Albiceleste.
Inter captain and striker Martinez is currently off on international duty.
The 26-year-old is with the Argentina national team, where he remains an important player, if not quite as much as is the case with his club where he wears the armband.
Martinez started in the Albiceleste’s first match of the international break.
That was a 3-0 friendly win against El Salvador.
Nerazzurri captain Martinez did not manage to get himself on the scoresheet in that match. However, he did assist a goal.
According to TyC, however, Martinez will drop out of the lineup for the next match.
On Tuesday, the Albiceleste take on Costa Rica in their second friendly of the break. And coach Lionel Scaloni has decided to drop Martinez to the bench for that match.
Lautaro Martinez To Drop To Bench Vs Costa Rica – Julian Alvarez To Start
In attack for Argentina over the last eighteen or so month, there has been a regular competition between Martinez and Manchester City’s Alvarez to start.
At the World Cup in Qatar last winter, the Inter striker had come into the tournament as the starter.
However, Martinez failed to perform well in Argentina’s first couple matches at the tournament.
The Inter striker was dealing with an ankle injury and failed to score or assist a goal as he put in two ineffective performances.
That led to Alvarez taking over the starting spot.
The Albiceleste looked more effective with the Manchester City player leading the line.
That did not mean that Martinez did not have a role to play in Argentina winning the tournament, however.
The 26-year-old came off the bench in all of the Albiceleste’s knockout matches.
Martinez scored the decisive penalty in a quarterfinal shootout against the Netherlands. He also set up Lionel Messi for Argentina’s late goal in extra time in the final against France.
