Nigeria – Argentina
All or nothing. This is the case for both Nigeria and Argentina in their match from Group D of the FIFA World Cup. Both teams have their chance to follow Croatia to the 1/8-finals, but only could do it in the end. But who? Let’s take a look in our winning soccer predictions for this game.
Nigeria are currently second in the group with 3 points, while Argentina are 4th with just one point won so far. In certain situation, Nigeria can qualify for the knockout phase even with a draw against Albiceleste. Of course, the best for them would be to win. Then they won’t care how the match between Croatia and Iceland have ended.
Argentina on the other hand do not have any other choice, but to win. This would allow the Albiceleste to pass Nigeria and have 4 points in the group. Of course, the South American would also hope that the result between Iceland and Croatia would be good for them.
Nigeria started the World Cup in an unconvincing fashion, losing against Croatia at the start. They made some adjustments for the second game against Iceland, including changing their formation to 3-5-2. This decision of the manager Gernot Rohr proved to be the right one. The Super Eagles beat Iceland with 2-0, thanks to two goals from Ahmed Musa. Now the Africans are pretty close to the 1/8-finals, but there’s one final step to make – to take a positive result against Argentina.
Times are pretty hard for Argentina. Two time winner at the World Cup, Albiceleste are in a moment of a huge crisis. The team plays pretty badly and they were even in a danger to miss the World Cup. The manager Jorge Sampaoli is unable to find the right option for his formation, which is why Argentina changed two formations in their first two games in Russia – 4-4-2 against Iceland and 3-4-3 against Croatia. It’s safe to say that both of them barely worked for the Albiceleste. Especially against Croatia Argentina were incredibly bad. One thing is for sure – if they show something similar against Nigeria as well, they’d have some serious trouble to progress.
Just like everyone would have expected, Jorge Sampaoli is about to make some changes in his team against Nigeria. Most likely Sampaoli will change once again his formation, picking a 4-3-3. There are some rumours that Gonzalo Higuain will return among the starting eleven, while Sergio Aguero would be benched. Players like the goalkeeper Franco Armani and the midfielder Ever Banega would feature in the game, too.
Leo Messi. Can he inspire his team to beat Nigeria and progress in the tournament? Messi was a shadow of himself in the first two matches, which seriously affected Argentina’s performance as well. But if Messi shows his best against Nigeria, then it would be massive boost for the Albiceleste. The truth is that this moment is hard for Argentina and they need their superstar to show what’s he really capable of.
It’s absolutely logical that the goalkeeper Willy Caballero is going to be replaced by Franco Armani as well. Caballero was terrible in the tournament so far. His mistake against Croatia especially was pretty awful. Franco Armani is kind of unexperienced on international level, but he doesn’t have any other option, but to play and show his qualities.
These are our winning soccer predictions for the World Cup game between Nigeria and Argentina in Group D of the tournament. One of these two teams could qualify for the knockout phase, while the other one will have to pack the bags.