Video: The national team's stunning goal in Santiago, assisted by Almada and scored by Julián Álvarez.

The Argentine national team 's performance remains at its highest level. And at the National Stadium in Santiago, they once again demonstrated why they are at the top of the FIFA rankings: the 1-0 victory was a masterpiece , perfectly resolved by Thiago Almada 's assist and Julián Álvarez 's brilliant finish.

It was 18 minutes into the first half when Leonardo Balerdi, facing pressure from the Chileans, found Thiago Almada and the former Vélez player fired up and sped down the center of the field with the ball glued to his foot.

ARGENTINA GOAL! 🕷️ Julián Álvarez chipped the ball past the goalkeeper to open the scoring in Santiago 🎩16' PT | 🇨🇱 Chile 0 - 1 Argentina 🇦🇷

Watch #ArgentinaXTelefe with @giraltpablo , @JPVarsky and @SofiMMartinez on https://t.co/2ECurz6Kmn 🏆 #Eliminatorias pic.twitter.com/ZhcgGUggLO

— Telefe (@telefe) June 6, 2025

As Almada ran with his head held high, Julián Álvarez charged forward—also at full speed—and ran into space, lining up in front of goalkeeper Brayan Cortés. Almada delivered the pass at just the right moment, and the Spider faced the goalkeeper in the box.

Julián Álvarez's flick over Cortés was a masterpiece , as the ball took a perfect trajectory and curled neatly into the goal after bouncing off the post. Argentina took a 1-0 lead against Chile in Santiago.

The Atlético de Madrid forward scored his fourth goal in these Qualifiers and is the second-highest scorer in Argentina behind Lionel Messi, who has six. He also has 13 for the Argentine national team.