Boca Juniors and Racing to contest Argentine Super Cup in Abu Dhabi

Argentina FA announce January 20 fixture after successful World Cup warm-up against UAE in November

Joaquin Correa of Argentina and Fabio de Lima of the UAE battle for the ball

Enzo Fernandez of Argentina and Abdulaziz Haikal of the UAE fight for the ball

Lisandro Martinez of Argentina and Caio of the UAE

Messi misses from a free kick

Messi and Shaheen Al Maazmi of the UAE

Juan Foyth of Argentina and Harib Abdalla of the UAE during the friendly

Messi's missed free kick

Julien Alvarez scores for Argentina

Angel Di Maria celebrates after scoring for Argentina in their 5-0 friendly win over the UAE in Abu Dhabi

Lionel Messi scores for Argentina in a friendly against the UAE at the Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday night. All photos: Chris Whiteoak / The National

Fans before the match in Abu Dhabi

Di Maria scores his second for Argentina

Messi celebrates with his Argentina teammates

Messi of Argentina and the UAE's Khalifa Al Hammadi

A Messi fan before the match

Messi under pressure from Al Hammadi

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni

Al Maazmi hot on Messi's tail

Di Maria after scoring for Argentina.

Messi on the attack

The UAE's Abdalla Ramadan is challenged by Alexis Mac Allister of Argentina

Messi brings the ball under control

Di Maria celebrates his second goal

Alvarez scores for Argentina

The UAE manager Rodolfo Arruabarrena

Alvarez celebrates after scoring

Alvarez scores for Argentina

Alvarez after scoring

Di Maria scores his second

The Argentina team before the match

The UAE team before the match

The Argentine Super Cup will be played outside the country for the first time in Abu Dhabi on January 20 when Boca Juniors face Racing Club, the country's football association have announced.

The Argentine FA and the Abu Dhabi Sports Council signed a four-year partnership in June 2022 to have a series of football events between both countries.

On November 16, more than 36,000 packed inside the Mohamed bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi as Argentina played their final warm-up game before the World Cup, beating the UAE 5-0.

Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni delighted the fans by playing Lionel Messi for the whole match – the captain went on to lift the trophy a few weeks later.

"After the first successful experience of Argentina's last friendly match with the United Arab Emirates National Team just before the start of the World Cup, the ADSC and the AFA continued their plans to strengthen football and sporting ties with the organisation of the Argentine Super Cup Final 2022 agreed for Friday 20 January 2023," AFA said in a statement on Thursday.

Boca Juniors were crowned league champions in October while Racing Club won the Champions Cup in November.