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A lot was said about the Argentine after they lost to Croatia. They were humiliated in that game but they bounced back vs Nigeria and showed a glimpse of what they are capable of doing.
They did crawl and struggle in the game vs the African side but a late winner by Marcos Rojo was enough to send them into the knockout stages. Lionel Messi finally got some freedom to play and he made the most of the space provided by the Nigerians to score the first goal.
France will be aware of all this and will be preparing a plan just for the Barcelona star. His club teammate, Samuel Umtiti will most likely be the one to mark him throughout the game.
Argentina have faced France twice at the World Cup and both the times they ended up as the winning side. Moreover, they made it to the finals on both occasions – winning the 1978 edition and ending up as runners-up in 1930 edition.
Overall, they have terrific record vs the European side and will hope to continue that. They have won six of the 11 meetings so far and have lost just twice. They have also kept a clean sheet in 8 games of those games!
Argentina Team News
Perez picked up a slight knock but is expected to be fit for the game today. Apart from him, there is no other injury news for Argentina and everyone is fit for the game.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference, Sampaoli said, “Argentina will play an aggressive style of football. We are going to attack them all the time.”
“The two teams are not the same. We want to be able to control the game throughout. We don’t want France to use their speed against us. If we don’t control the game, it will become very physical, which won’t suit our style,” he added.
Sampaoli continued to talk about a potential plan France might have for Messi and said, “I’m sure France have their plans to neutralize Messi but we have our own plans to make his life easier; so we will see who can execute their plans better. France will have success to the extent that we are not accurate. They will try to get us to make mistakes. It will all be about how we handle different situations.”
Argentina XI and Formation
Jorge Sampaoli will definitely not change his starting XI now. He has found the winning combination and will continue with it unless someone gets suspended or injured.
