Today’s the day. Tonight’s the night. Argentina vs Australia. Messi’s 1000th game tonight, could be his last at the World Cup. Australia is the easiest nation Argentina could have faced but this WorldCup has been unpredictable.
I’m hopeful, and optimistic. Messi masterclass 🙏
— K.Shah (@kshitijshah23) December 3, 2022
There are a lot of terrible ‘capybara vs kangaroo’ memes circulating…
Argentina will wear the home kit vs. Australia. 🇦🇷 pic.twitter.com/gNT3IHgBvY
— Roy Nemer (@RoyNemer) December 2, 2022
SportsMole:
After escaping their groups in dramatic circumstances, just three days later Argentina and last-16 opponents Australia meet at Ahmad bin Ali Stadium on Saturday.
Both nations’ World Cup adventures now continue into the knockout stages, following the Albiceleste’s recovery from a shock opening loss to Saudi Arabia and the Socceroos’ defeat of Denmark in midweek.
Having overcome a faltering start to their latest World Cup campaign, an Argentina squad fuelled by a hard-fought victory over Mexico in their second Group C fixture secured a spot in the last 16 by bettering a limited Poland side on Wednesday.
The South American champions saw talisman Lionel Messi spurn the chance to open the scoring from a contentious first-half penalty, but were ultimately rewarded for 90 minutes of dominance by leapfrogging their European opponents at the top of the group standings…
Given the gulf in stature between the two nations in football terms, it comes as no surprise that Australia have lost each of their last four meetings with Argentina – including a crucial playoff to reach USA ’94 – though the Socceroos earned a 2-0 win when two very different squads clashed at last year’s Tokyo Olympics.
Yet, Graham Arnold’s men are riding the crest of a wave before they arrive in Al Rayyan for a date with destiny that sees them taking part in the World Cup knockout rounds for the first time since the fabled ‘golden generation’ of 2006.
The unfancied Socceroos defied expectations to finish second in Group D behind defending champions France, doing so only on goal difference after winning two of their three fixtures – against Tunisia and then Euro 2022 semi-finalists Denmark…
raven
GO DAWGS!!!!!
Alison Rose
I’m so torn because I’d love to see Australia get an upset here, but I also want to see Messi finally hold up a World Cup trophy.
trollhattan
Aussie, Aussie, Aussie–oye, oye, oye!
phdesmond
quoting from the national anthem, “al gran pueblo argentino salud!”
Alison Rose
Boom! Nice sneaky little strike in there.
trollhattan
Well, that was something.
Cmorenc
If argentina wins today they face a far more opponent in the quarterfinals, the Netherlands. True, the Netherlands were far less the dominant team in their win v the us today than the 3-1 score might suggest, and were not really pushed hard in their 3 group stage games, whereas argentina had to dig deep after an opening group stage loss and had a really tough game v mexico, much more so than the final 2-0 score would seem to indicate. You could choose to interpret argentina’s challenges getting out of group vs netherland’s relative ease winning their group as demonstrating weakness in the argentina team, but i suspect it will prove just the opposite – ability of argentina to toughly dig deep when it’s all on the line.
Gin & Tonic
Pretty torn here – have friends in both countries, have visited both countries more than once.
Alison Rose
Well, that was a mite sloppy.
Alison Rose
Whoa! Caught the keeper off-guard there.
Alison Rose
Whew, holy hell!
Messi still on the hunt. The match against the Netherlands will be a good one.
Mike E
Good on ya, Australia… made it a match.
mrmoshpotato
Kansas State just upset undefeated TCU.
Steve in the ATL
@raven:I’ll drink to that! Or maybe Ihave been for hours now. Go Dawgs!