In the eighth final of the 2022 World Cup, Lionel Messi’s Argentina will take on coach Graham Arnold’s Australian fighting machine. Is the World Cup gearing up for another stunt or will the Argentines ‘just’ advance to the quarter-finals? In this article, we look ahead to this eighth final and give you our prediction. In addition, we provide you with a betting tip with the corresponding odds. We also take a look at the odds to see where to get great bets.
Argentina – Latest Team News & Statistics
Argentina started the World Cup dramatically with a defeat against Saudi Arabia. Surely Messi’s last World Cup could not end like this? It did not, as the Argentines recovered and won the remaining two group matches against Mexico and Poland. So Argentina simply went through to the eighth finals as group winners after all.
That is the round where it ended last time for Messi and his teammates. Namely, it met France early in the tournament then. In a blistering football match, the French eventually drew the longest. It was 4-3 for France at the time, thanks in part to two goals by a then 19-year-old Kylian Mbappé. This time, the hurdle in the eighth finals seems a lot smaller for Argentina.
For now, everyone seems to have emerged unscathed from the group stage in Lionel Scaloni’s team. So the coach can have players like Messi, Ángel Di Maria, Lautaro Martínez, Julián Álvarez and Rodrigo De Paul at his disposal.
Australia – Latest Team News & Statistics
Australia managed to secure a spot in the knockout stages for the second time ever. The Socceroos recorded their first win at a World Cup since 2010 against Tunisia and against Denmark they followed this up nicely by winning 1-0 again. Thus, Australia finished with six points in second place behind, France who also finished with six points.
The last and only time the Australians qualified for the knockout phase of the World Cup was in 2006. Back then, Guus Hiddink was the national coach. Back then, they flew out a round later against Italy, so now another tough task awaits.
Coach Arnold seems to have his favourite line-up in mind and therefore shifted little for the final group game. He will have a fit squad at his disposal against Argentina, so we expect few changes again. The Australians will play defensively and wait for a sparse breakout.
Argentina – Australia previous encounters
Argentina and Australia have met twice before. As expected, the statistics are in favour of the Argentines. They won all two previous encounters between them. In 2005, Argentina won 2-4 thanks to a hat-trick by Luciano Figueroa. Two years later, it was 1-0 thanks to a goal by Martin Demichelis.
Argentina – Australia: Betting Tip & Odds
Unsurprisingly, Argentina are the clear-cut favourites in this match. The team was already labelled as one of the title favourites before the World Cup and for Australia to have made it through the group stage is already quite something. We don’t expect an exciting match, but we don’t expect a walk-over either. Our prediction is a businesslike victory for Argentina, and so the betting tip is for Argentina to win and for them to score less than 2.5 goals. This tip yields a nice odds of 15/8 at c.
- Tip: Argentina win & Under 2.5 goals
- Odds: 15/8 at bookmaker 15/8 (Situation: 01-12-2022, 01:00)
- Risk assessment: medium
- Recommended stake: 4/10