Argentina thrash delayed Burkina Faso 7-0 ahead of Messi farewell

Argentina thrashed a problem-striken Burkina Faso 7-0 at a friendly at the Monumental stadium on Saturday night, coasting to an easy win ahead of Lionel Messi’s farewell to the national team.

Lautaro Martínez (fourth minute), Moumouni Diallo (own goal in the eighth), Gianluca Prestianni (12th), Nicolás Paz (34th), Julián Álvarez (36th), Franco Mastantuono (56th) and Giuliano Simeone (92nd in injury time) scored for the 2026 World Cup runners-up.

At times, the match resembled an open training session more than an international friendly.  Argentina effectively settled the outcome before the first quarter-hour.

Aided by the emphatic scoreline, the match gave coach Lionel Scaloni the chance to assess several young players and further develop the squad renewal under way in the team that won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

The national team’s next challenge will be even more special.

Against Benin at the Monumental on Tuesday, 39-year-old Messi will play his final match for Argentina, bringing to an end a legendary 21-year career in the Albiceleste shirt.

Night to savour for Prestianni

The gulf between an Argentina side playing at full speed and a willing but unsettled Burkina Faso team made up largely of Under-23 players was apparent almost immediately. The Albiceleste’s superiority was clearly evident.

Scaloni was able to give 22 players a run-out over the 90 plus minutes, including debuts for Santiago Castro, Tomás Palacios and Matías Soulé.

Argentina dominated possession, controlling 78 percent of the ball and registering 23 shots on goal compared with just three from Burkina Faso – a thoroughly one-sided contest.

In its search for new blood, Argentina saw some promising signs from the creative Nico Paz, the pacey Gianluca Prestianni and versatile Valentín Barco, who played as one of the two holding midfielders and the left flank.

“I’m very happy. I still can’t believe I scored my first goal for the national team. I’m enjoying this moment I’m experiencing,” said Prestianni, the Benfica winger.

Half-empty Monumental

Another debutant on the scoresheet, Franco Mastantuono, said he was “happy to put on the national team shirt."

“I’m happy because I also managed to score a goal,” said the Fiorentina midfielder.

Among the more experienced players, Lautaro added to his goals tally by following up after goalkeeper Razak Guira saved his penalty.

The Inter Milan captain is now Argentina’s third-highest scorer of all time with 42 goals, level with Sergio Agüero and behind only Lionel Messi (125) and Gabriel Batistuta (54).

The match was played at a Monumental that had several sections left half-empty because of a FIFA sanction imposed on Argentina over discriminatory chants recorded during the World Cup. The ruling requires the Albiceleste to play two competitive matches with the stadium operating at 50 percent capacity.

Burkina Faso arrived in Buenos Aires just five hours before kick-off, after a long and difficult journey that had even cast doubt over whether the friendly would go ahead.

The Étalons left Morocco early on Saturday on a special flight to Argentina but travelled without “several important players” and with call-ups from the Under-23 side, the Burkinabe Football Federation (FBF) said.

Burkina Faso’s troubled journey

The African side's participation in the friendly was in doubt after a series of problems disrupted the team’s journey from Morocco to Argentina.

The FBF said on Friday that the team had been left in Casablanca after the cancellation of a charter flight originally scheduled for September 30.

According to Jairo Pachón, a FIFA-licensed match agent and founder and CEO of UK-based Eurodata Sport firm, which was responsible for organising Burkina Faso’s transport to Buenos Aires, the delegation was already at the airport when an operator informed them that the plane had been inspected after its systems detected a technical fault.

After a period of waiting, the airline informed the delegation that the aircraft could not take off and cancelled both the flight and its contract, citing force majeure, Pachón said in a statement. Eurodata Sport then began looking for an alternative aircraft and arranging the necessary permits, he added.

The disruption also led some players originally included in Burkina Faso’s squad to decide against travelling because of the fatigue and exhaustion caused by the delays.

Representatives of the FBF and the Burkinabe government held meetings with the players over the following 24 hours in an attempt to persuade them to reconsider, but some maintained their decision not to travel.

The Burkinabe government later replaced those players. The replacements had to travel from Burkina Faso to Casablanca, where a new charter aircraft had been arranged to continue the journey to Buenos Aires.

Pachón said the FBF and the Burkinabe government had made an “extraordinary effort” to ensure the match went ahead.

– TIMES/AFP