Can Argentina kick-on after winning the Copa America?
South America’s World Cup qualification tournament resumes this week, table-topping Argentina will look to continue their impressive start against a Chile team who are yet to find their feet and risk failing to qualify for a third World Cup straight.
World and continental champions Argentina sit top of the qualification table with 15 points after six matches played. The Argentinians have won five of their six games and conceded just twice making them the team to beat. But with neighbour Uruguay just two points behind them in the table, the top spot is not guaranteed. However, 1st place is not a necessity as all of the top six will automatically qualify for the 2026 World Cup.
Chile on the other hand are currently in 8th (5 points) out of a possible 10 placements. With just one win against bottom side Peru and losses against Venezuela and Ecuador, Chile is a shadow of the squad that reached the 2010 and 2014 World Cup rounds of 16. With Brazil and Argentina still yet to face them, La Roja are in big danger of crashing out of a qualification process that has never been easier.
These two nations have played each other 95 times since 1910, 63 wins for Argentina, 8 wins for Chile and 24 draws. Chile have not beaten Argentina within 90 minutes since 2008 (2 penalty shootout wins in 2015 and 2016). The pair's last five fixtures are as follows:
25 Jun 2024: Chile 0-1 Argentina (Copa America) 27 Jan 2022: Chile 1-2 Argentina (FIFA World Cup Qual.) 14 Jun 2021: Argentina 1-1 Chile (Copa America) 03 Jun 2021: Argentina 1-1 Chile (FIFA World Cup Qual.) 05 Sep 2019: Argentina 0-0 Chile (International Friendly)
Argentina: Lionel Messi - 3 goals Nicolas Otamendi - 2 goals Enzo Fernandez - 1 goal Nicolas Gonzalez - 1 goal Nicolas Tagliafico - 1 goal
Chile: Marcelino Nunez - 1 goal Diego Valdes - 1 goal Arturo Vidal - 1 goal
Argentina: Emi Martinez, Gonzalo Montiel, Christian Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Nicolas Tagliafico, Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister, Nicolas Gonzalez, Lautaro Martinez, Julian Alvarez.
Chile: Brayan Cortes, Gabriel Suazo, Paulo Diaz, Guillermo Maripan, Mauricio Isla, Marcelino Nunez, Erick Pulgar, Rodrigo Echeverria, Victor Davila, Eduardo Vargas, Dario Osorio.
Not many of Argentina’s attackers have found their shooting boots in their respective leagues so far this season. But with Lionel Messi missing through injury, someone will have to step up, and that man might just be Lautaro Martinez. Martinez was the top scorer at the 2024 Copa America with five goals in six games but is yet to score in two Serie A starts. That being said Lautaro is never far away from finding the back of the net and will be facing a Chile side that has conceded the third highest amount of goals in the qualifiers (7).
The game is set to get underway on Friday 6th September 2024 at 01:00 am UK time. And in the UK you can watch all of the action live on Premier Sports 1 with the appropriate subscription.
Football Writer
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