The Difficulties of Argentina Winning the World Cup (Part 1)

about 2 years ago

_{National flag designs are from Pixabay. Post design edit via Canva}
Around ten days and will witness arguably the greatest sporting event in the world - Fifa World Cup, a 2022 edition which will be hosted by Qatar, first country in the middle-east to host the World Cup. An exciting series of battle between nations, 32 teams will fight it out to book a ticket for the knockout stages. Which teams will proceed? Who comes out on top? In football, anything is possible and I'll list down how difficult will this world cup be for Argentina.

This is the official group table of the group stages where all teams only play 3 matches in their group - single round robin tournament - with top 2 teams advancing to the knockout stages.

_{The knockout stage bracket for Argentina depending on their group stage final position}
Group C is where Argentina belong along with Poland, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. We know we can't call this as an easy group because Mexico has always been a huge contender for the World Cup. In fact, Mexico has always qualified to the knockout stages from 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2018 edition. You can't put Poland out of contention too because Lewandowski is there along with experienced keepers Tomasz Szczęsny & Lukasz Fabianski who are still in their prime. Saudi Arabia is the least favored team to advance here even if you look at their Fifa World Cup rankings. As I say, this will be a tough group C but I think Argentina & Mexico will go through to the knockout stage.

Knockout Stage

The format to determine who will be Argentina's expected opponent lies on two factors: 1.) Argentina's final position in Group C and 2.) Top 2 teams of Group D. These are the possible scenarios:

Scenario 1:

Argentina tops group C while Denmark places second in group D

_{In group D, France is expected to go top while Denmark 2nd}

This is highest possibility to happen considering France is expected to win group D. This time, I don't believe in World Cup curse that the last edition's champion gets eliminated in the group stages. I'll tell you, France is super-stacked this time. Imagine a frontline Mbappe, Benzema, Giroud, Coman, Nkunku, Dembele with caliber backline. In terms of quality and experience, Denmark has it too. In fact, Denmark has the quality to beat France.

Scenario 2:

Argentina places 2nd in group C, France top group D

This is the time where the difficulty for Argentina gets high. In fact, the group stage is already a difficult group because there are three teams that can go to the top two.

By all means, they should top group C to have an comfortable position in the knockout stage. Denmark is a better opponent than France. I am not trying to think lowly of Denmark here but with the quality of players France (defending champion) has where they also have the current Ballon D'or winner Karim Benzema.

The possibilities are endless but I'd like to stick into that scenarios. The two above poses the biggest possibilities among other possibilities. If Argentina proceeds to the knockout stage being the top of the group, I think they have a big chance to proceed to the Quarterfinals, where bigger opponents await.

Quarter-Finals

There are two scenarios that for me provides the best possibility how will Argentina position itself in the quarterfinals with their respective opponents:

If Argentina tops Group C

Assuming that Argentina tops group C, they will be positioned at the higher portion of the bracket. This means they will be facing the winner of 1st of Group A vs 2nd of Group B, which I expect it to be Netherlands vs Wales. So it's going to be Argentina vs Netherlands in the quarterfinals.

You can't just take out Netherlands in the World Cup contention because they are also a stacked team with Louis Van Gaal as their manager. The likes of Virgil Van Dijk, Frenkie De Jong, de Ligt, Depay, and Wijnaldum are expected to lead this nation.

Bad news for the Dutch's is that Depay is now aging and Van Dijk shows he's becoming slow over the years. This gives more confidence to the forwards of Argentina in Messi spearheads the attack partnered with Lautaro Martinez. Dybala & Di Maria are still in doubts due to injury.

If Argentina places 2nd in Group C

As I mentioned above, they are likely to face France in the knockout stages and if they manage to do that, the quarter finals match will most likely be the winner of England vs Senegal, into which I feel England will be victorious. I'm not scrapping out the current African Cup of Nations champion but this is an honest opinion, England is a very strong team right now too. The fact that they finished 1st runner-up in the last Euro is a proof that the Lions squad has the quality.

This means that if this scenario happens, this will be Argentina vs England in the quarter-finals. This will be one of the most watched game, because most of the England players are stars of Premier League - the league that has the highest amount of viewers per game. This will be an intense match up given the fact that England has a huge depth of youngstars + the caliber of Harry Kane. Argentina on the other hand are more experienced with Messi leading the squad. You can't always predict Argentina to lose if you have Messi on the squad. But this time, I see Argentina still progresses in the second round. With their recent form, being undefeated in consecutive matches and Messi still has what it takes to carry a team.

What are your thoughts about this world cup? Who are you betting your money? To what team do you find joy supporting? Find out more as I will have a part of this World Cup edition very soon.