Argentina vs Australia: A green and gold crowning for Messi’s 1,000th game?
Lionel Messi is set to play the 1,000th game of his career tonight as Argentina face Australia at the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium, but most important for him will be whether he plays for the 1,003rd time on the 18th of December.
Standing in his way will be 11 iron-willed Aussies led by a certain Graham Arnold who played in the only win Australia have taken in this fixture in 1988.
Harry Souttar and co. displayed a remarkable battling desire in the group stage to progress ahead of perennially underwhelming dark horses Denmark and almost-surprise package Tunisia, but will now face a much sterner test.
Argentina enter the knockouts having turned their form around, the despair of the opening round upset against Hervé Renard’s white shirt (and some footballers too) has been dampened and then dismissed with convincing performances against Mexico and Poland.
This leaves an unarguably one-sided looking affair with the Socceroos likely to stick with the backs-to-the-wall heroics that saw them overcome Denmark. Although, truth be told, with the likes of Souttar, Kyle Rowles, Milos Degenek and Jackson Irvine it’s a gameplan they will relish.
Arnold is expected to name the same XI as against the Danes, looking to find defensive organisation by strengthening the cohesion of the team as a unit.
The man tasked with finding a set-up to break down that unit, Lionel Scaloni, has a couple more selection headaches. Angel Di Maria didn’t finish the game against Poland and it’s uncertain whether he’ll start this one on the bench or hugging the right touchline as he tends to be instructed in Scaloni’s system.
Up front there is also the question of whether to stick with usual first-choice Lautaro Martínez or to keep faith with Julian Alvarez after his excellent display last time out, which he crowned with his first World Cup goal.
It’s set to be an intriguing clash of styles: Argentina hoping to spark their World cup challenge into life while Australia will be looking to top up their Leckie meter for another dazzling show.
