Argentina – Egypt

The second half of the world champions’ match won’t be goalless.

The Argentina national team arrived at the World Cup as the reigning champions and were expected to live up to the raised bar set by Lionel Messi and his teammates in Qatar. They did not have an easy path to the Round of 16. However the problems the South Americans faced in the Round of 16, looking at the results of other favorites in North America, do not go beyond the norm established by the circumstances. Spain, Portugal, England and other top sides at the World Cup often struggled with their opponents and even dropped points in the group stage. In the group stage the Argentines performed cleanly. The world champions beat Algeria, Austria and Jordan, conceding only one goal and showering more praise on their greatest captain. The real difficulties for Argentina came in the Round of 16 match against Cape Verde. The very proud and diligent African side, as underdogs, fought back in three of the four World Cup matches, but did not lose in regulation time to anyone. The Argentines allowed Vozinye and his teammates to come back twice, but for the third goal by the world champions the Africans had no answer. One cannot say that Argentina's mood was greatly spoiled by the absence of a convincing victory in this match. Rather, on the contrary, after too smooth a group stage, the Argentines needed a shake-up, which they did get. Egypt somewhat resembles Argentina's previous opponent. The African side has, for the first time, reached the World Cup knockout stage and has not lost any match yet. In the group stage, Mo Salah and his teammates drew with Belgium and Iran, and beat New Zealand in a come-from-behind fashion. Egypt also played two halves of regular time and two extra periods in the Round of 16. Moreover, physically the Africans were even more worn down, considering the playing style of their opponents from Australia. The Egyptians managed to win only in a penalty shootout, in which none of their kicks proved to be inaccurate. Undoubtedly, Egypt can challenge the favorite of the match and score goals. At the same time, Scaloni's men stepped up in every second half of the World Cup and consistently scored in them. Similar events can be expected in the 1/8 finals.