A 7-0 win that turned into a scandal! Argentina face backlash after Burkina Faso travel chaos
Argentina's 7-0 victory has been overshadowed by the extraordinary circumstances surrounding their opponents.
Details: Argentina comfortably defeated Burkina Faso 7-0 at the Monumental in Buenos Aires, but the sporting result quickly became secondary. Burkina Faso were forced to make major changes to their delegation after several players from the original senior squad decided not to travel following a chaotic dispute over the journey to Argentina.
The problems began when the charter flight scheduled to leave Casablanca on September 30 was cancelled because of a technical issue. While organizers worked to arrange another aircraft, some Burkina Faso players refused to travel, citing accumulated fatigue. Argentine media also reported that the players had rejected the possibility of taking a commercial flight and insisted on a charter.
Burkina Faso's federation and government eventually replaced a number of those players with members of the U23 setup. The resulting squad reached Ezeiza at 15:43 local time after almost 12 hours in the air — only five hours and 17 minutes before kick-off. Remarkably, Burkina Faso did not field a single player who had featured in their previous senior international, and even the coach was different.
Argentina took advantage immediately, scoring five times before half-time and eventually winning 7-0. Lautaro Martínez, Gianluca Prestianni, Nico Paz, Julián Álvarez, Franco Mastantuono and Giuliano Simeone found the net, while Moumouni Diallo scored an own goal. Lionel Scaloni later thanked the young Burkina Faso players for making the journey despite the extraordinary circumstances. It is worth noting that the 7-0 result equals Argentina's biggest victory under Scaloni, matching the scoreline recorded against Curaçao in 2023.
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Steven Perez
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