Argentine media deliver verdict on Tottenham's Cristian Romero after he shut down Luis Diaz last night

Cristian Romero started at the back for Argentina as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Colombia in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier.

The Tottenham Hotspur defender played the full 90 minutes alongside Nicolas Otamendi at the heart of the backline.

Yerson Mosquera gave Colombia an early lead, but Nicolas Gonzalez restored parity shortly after the interval.

However, a penalty from James Rodriguez gave the home side all three points as Argentina failed to build on their win 3-0 win against Chile.

The defending champions may have fallen to a defeat, but Romero did his reputation no harm, earning praise from the Argentine media.

Tottenham defender Cristian Romero hailed for keeping Liverpool attacker Luis Diaz at bay

The 26-year-old came up against Liverpool attacker Luis Diaz, who has been in fine form for club and country since the start of the new season.

Diaz already had four goals to his name before coming up against Romero but couldn’t add to his tally as the Argentine defender shushed him out with relative ease.

TyC Sports rated his performance six out of ten, saying: “The most solid defensively. When Luis Díaz faced him, he neutralised him without problems.

“As a curiosity, he went out alone to press in the middle of the field on a couple of occasions and he didn’t do badly, but he wasn’t accompanied by a block.”

Romero also garnered praise from the Argentine media for his performance against Chile last week, capping off a fine international break on a personal level.

Despite the 2-1 defeat to Colombia, he has only managed to enhance his growing reputation and can leave the national team camp with his head held high.

Analysing Romero’s stats against Colombia

Romero endured a busy outing in Colombia, finishing the game with four interceptions and as many tackles.

The 26-year-old had 41 touches of the ball and completed 90% of his passes (28/31), winning each of his five ground duels against the Colombian forwards.

Only Gonzalez (7.3) – who scored Argentina’s solitary goal of the game – earned a higher Sofascore rating than Romero (6.9) for Lionel Scaloni’s side, which is another indication that he was one of their best performers.

Ange Postecoglou showered high praise on Romero earlier this season and will hope his star man can continue his fine run of form as Tottenham prepare to host Arsenal this weekend.

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