The invincibles of Group A Netherlands will square off against Argentina in the 2nd quarter-final of the FIFA World Cup on Friday at the Lusail Iconic Stadium. Despite losing to Saudi Arabia in their initial match, the South American champions retaliated back strongly, winning the next two games before defeating Australia 2-1 in the knockout rounds to advance to the championship final. Meanwhile, Louis van Gaal’s men beat the USA by 3-1 to confirm their spot.
Van Gaal’s finally proved their claims of not being a Boring Football Team after burying the USA under the goalscoring burden. The Netherlands’ fury started when Cody Gakpo’s powerful strike went through the USA’s defense line, marking the first goal for his team.
In next few moments, Denzel Dumfries assisted in two identical goals for Daley Blind and Memphis Daley. Although Haji Wright’s goal gave the USA some optimism by scoring a goal, it was already too late for the Yanks.
While marking their fourth appearance in the Quarter-Finals of the last five World Cup appearances, the Netherlands is hoping to showcase a ruthless performance against Argentina, similar to what they did against the USA.
Notably, the Netherlands is still undefeated in this event while appearing in four games, winning them all. There were placed in group A where they finished top with 7 points. During the group’s campaign, they beat Senegal by 2-0, Qatar by a similar score, and then ended a goalless draw against Ecuador.
In contrast, the Messi-squad played nervy football after losing to Saudi Africa by a score of 2-1 in the initial encounter. Perhaps their matchup with Australia in the knockout rounds was planned so that Lionel Messi would play his 1000th career game and score his first World Cup goal, not in a group stage. While en routing to the quarter-finals for the first time since 2014, La Albiceleste men are thinking of achieving the dream of glory they failed to fulfill for the nine times since 1930.
The South American side was placed in group C alongside Poland, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia. As expected, they finished on top with 6 points and two wins out of three. However, Argentina didn’t get to an ideal World Cup start, as they lost to Saudi Arabia in the opening match by 2-1 and then won the following games against Poland by 0-2 and Mexico by 0-2 to meet Australia in the knockouts.
With so much offensive talent on both sides, there’s not only a single percent chance of a goalless draw. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is a hot favorite in this clash because they maintain quite an impressive playing streak over their South American counterparts.
Netherlands possible starting lineup:
Noppert; Timber, Van Dijk, Ake; Dumfries, De Jong, De Roon, Blind; Klaassen; Gakpo, Depay
Argentina possible starting lineup:
Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Acuna; Fernandez, De Paul, Mac Allister; Di Maria, Messi, Alvarez
