As always when it's time for the World Cup, the players of Argentina as well as the entire nation have huge expectations from this team. And it seems that this time it is more pronounced than ever before. It is possible that one of the reasons for that optimism is the fact that this is probably Messi's last World Cup and that he will give his best before everyone else. In addition to today's opponent, the Argentines are also in a group with Poland and Mexico. They will certainly pass the group without major problems, but the way in which they will do it will largely determine their further participation in the tournament. If they want to let everyone know that they came to Qatar to win a trophy, then the best recipe for that is efficient matches where only they will be wondering about the final result. After winning the Copa America for the first time with the national team, the appetites of Lionel Messi and his teammates are certainly high for this tournament. Of course, he is the biggest star of this team, if not of the entire World Cup, but he is far from the only quality player in Argentina. In this competition, they will not be able to count on the excellent Paulo Dybala, but there is no doubt that Lautaro Martinez is very capable of replacing him. In the qualifiers for this championship, Martinez scored the same number of goals as Messi (7), and unlike him, he also had three assists. When I'm talking about assists, we mustn't forget about the great Di Maria, who can serve his attackers with one ball between the defenders of the opponent. In addition to the attack, Argentina has no shortage of top players in other parts of the field either. In the World Cup qualifiers, they conceded only 8 goals in 17 games, and the national teams in South America are not at all naive. How strong Argentina is at the moment is best shown by the data on their streak of invincibility, which they will definitely want to keep in Qatar as well. In the last 36 games, or in other words, since 2019, they have not lost! Argentina's impressive run of results has included three games against Brazil. Two of those were wins for Lionel Messi's side, including the 2021 Copa America final, and one that ended in a draw. Even if there was a much better team against them, and not Saudi Arabia, the Argentines would be big favorites, and I think the only real question that should be asked before this match is how many goals Argentina can score.

Without any desire to diminish the success of the Saudis, which the placement at the World Cup certainly is, I think that the only thing they can hope for is that the players of Argentina will not have their day. This will be their sixth participation in the World Cup and so far they have managed to record only 3 victories out of 16 games played. They achieved two victories out of the three mentioned back in 1994 at the championship in the USA against Morocco and Belgium, and the third victory was achieved against a team with which they are similar in terms of quality, Egypt, at the championship in Russia in 2018. In addition, they have two more draws against Tunisia and of South Africa and 11 defeats. It is very difficult to talk about the individual quality of the players, because none of the players play in any European club and the big question is how they will manage on the big stage when they meet one of the best players of today. I am quite sure that Saudi Arabia will defend with all the players on the field, but in Argentina there are great football masters who will certainly know how to stretch the Saudi defense a little. I expect the Argentinians to go for the opponent's goal from the start and I would not be surprised if they score two goals in the first half, if not more.