Claudio Echeverri made his debut at the Olympic Games and the fans' request with his coach Mascherano

The U-23 Argentina national team started badly in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in the football tournament as they suffered a 2-1 loss against the U-23 Morocco team. Argentina was not convincing for most of the match and struggled to gain the Morocco team, who looked very dangerous when they attacked. While Argentina has notable names like Julian Alvarez and Nicolas Otamendi, some fans were expecting to see the youngster Claudio Echeverri.

Manchester City signed the young attacking midfielder who showed quality at River Plate. Echeverri will join the Premier League champions in January but first is on loan at River Plate for the rest of this year. The young players in the Argentina team were picked by Javier Mascherano, and after the loss, Argentina fans want the former FC Barcelona player to give Echeverri a chance.

Echeverri was subbed into the match against Morocco in the 83rd minute of the match. He ended up playing a total of 25 minutes since the referee added 15 minutes of added time after the 90th minute. After the match was suspended for nearly two hours, the referee gave three more minutes. Echeverri was praised for his little cameo, as Argentina looked more dangerous in the attack when he came on.

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Echeverri created one chance in the 25 minutes he was given to play and had a shot off-target. He scored a 75% pass accuracy in the match and had 16 touches of the ball. Three of the touches were in the opposition box, and they kicked a corner kick.

After impressing many fans with his attacking qualities and how Argentina looked more threatening in the attack, Mascherano may start in the next matches as the team is very desperate to pick up points to advance to the next round. Argentina wants to win the gold medal, and they need to win the next two games to confirm their participation in the knockout stages.

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U-23 Argentina's next match at the Olympics

Argentina has two more matches in the Summer Olympics, which is the rest of the group stage. Argentina will play against U-23 Iraq this Saturday on July 27th They will then play against U-23 Ukraine next Tuesday.

Iraq and Ukraine played each other today as well, but Iraq got the three points. Iraq defeated Ukraine 2-1 after goals from Ayman Hussein and Ali Jasim, while Valentyn Rubchynskyi scored for the Ukrainians. It will be a must-win game for Argentina against Iraq.