The team sheet said that Marcos Acuna was plying at left-back during Argentina’s final, make-or-break World Cup group-stage clash with Poland on Wednesday night. The Sevilla man’s heat map, however, told a very different story.
Acuna has always been a full-back of the ‘adventurous’ variety. He took that wanderlust to an all-new level against plodding Poland, however. Often, Acuna was the Argentina player situated closest to Wojciech Szczesny’s net in the first half.
Any further forward and he might as well have grabbed a hot dog and jumped into the blue-and-white sea of Albiceleste supporters behind the goal.
Now, this was obviously part of Lionel Scaloni’s game-plan. Push Acuna as high up the pitch as possible. Pin Matty Cash back. And open up space for the likes of Lionel Messi, Alexis MacAllister and Angel di Maria. It worked too.
Acuna’s positioning and thrust contributed massively to Argentina’s most fluid and functional performance of a mixed World Cup campaign; his probing runs onto those defence-splitting Lionel Messi passes reminiscent of the Barcelona legend’s once-exhilerating partnership with an overlapping Jordi Alba at the Camp Nou.
Acuna even had two of Argentina’s best efforts on goal before heading for the bench on the hour. Including one rasping 26th minute drive which fizzed past Szczesny’s post.
And if any Wolverhampton Wanderers fans were tuning in, keen to take a closer luck at a player tipped this week to join Julen Lopetegui’s Molineux revolution in January, well it’s fair to say Acuna made a positive first impression.
An exciting glimpse of things to come, perhaps.
Argentina’s Marcos Acuna shows why Wolves like him in World Cup win
Sevilla, La Colina de Nervion say, are imploring Acuna to find himself a new club in the New Year. Sevilla need to raise funds for winter arrivals. And the £12 million-rated Acuna appears to have taken on the role of ‘sacrificial lamb’.
Villarreal are reportedly keen. As are an Inter Milan side looking for a Robin Gosens replacement on the left-hand side.
Wolves fans will thrilled to learn that Acuna played perhaps the best football of his career under Lopetegui at Sevilla. Some would argue, meanwhile, that he was the finest left-back in La Liga during 2021/22.
Whether an Acuna-Lopetegui reunion in the Black Country can reap similarly impressive results remains to be seen. But if the 30-year-old’s swashbuckling display against Poland is anything to go by, you can probably expect to see Acuna spend more time in the opposition penalty area than in his own at Molineux.
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