Argentina – Switzerland

A European team will give the world champion a serious fight

The Argentina national team arrived at the World Cup in North America with the highest possible world status. Lionel Messi's team not only won the last World Cup in Qatar but also became Copa America champions. Such a high standing always carries with it significant risks of a spectacular fall, as any result other than defending the title at the World Cup is unlikely to satisfy anyone in Argentina. The Argentines have already walked a razor's edge a couple of times. If no questions arose about them in the group stage, the knockout phase did not go well for them. After group wins over Algeria, Austria and Indonesia, it seemed that the Round of 16 opponent Cabo Verde was roughly on a level with the teams defeated by Argentina. Meanwhile the African representatives showed themselves in the match against another favorite so boldly and disciplined that they twice came back and finally cracked only in the second extra time. It would seem that Scaloni's pupils learned the lesson from underestimating the opponent, but in the Round of 16 an early exit from the 2026 World Cup was even closer. Egypt reached the final quarter of the match against Argentina with a two-goal lead and launched sharp counterattacks against the advancing opponent. Somehow Messi and his teammates not only came back but also completed a comeback victory in stoppage time — 3:2. Switzerland looks to be the most dangerous opponent among those Argentina had to face at the World Cup. The European team learned its lesson in the opening round when it failed to convert a huge advantage over Qatar into a win. Since then there have been no complaints about the performances of Murat Yakin's squad. The real test of maturity and capability was passed in the Round of 16 in the match against Colombia. Both teams played cautiously, but the Swiss managed to neutralize almost all of the strong points of the powerful opponent. Switzerland managed to win only in a penalty shootout, but its players can look at the Argentines with confidence. One can boldly claim that in terms of play, Colombia's team is not much inferior to Argentina, and defensively they were much more reliable than the world champions. Most likely, in this matchup we will see something similar to the Norway-Brazil encounter with roughly the same result.