Can Austria stop Lionel Messi from making FIFA World Cup history and securing another victory for Argentina? We are looking forward to the match with our Argentina vs Austria predictions and previews.
Argentina vs Austria: the key information
- Supercomputer Opta gives Argentina a winning probability of 61.1% based on 25,000 pre-match simulations.
- Argentina could become the seventh nation to score at least three goals in four consecutive World Cup matches, and the first since Spain between 1998 and 2002.
- Seven of Austria’s last 10 World Cup goals have been scored from set pieces (3 corners, 2 penalties, 1 free kick, 1 direct free kick).
Lionel Messi can make FIFA Men’s World Cup history when Argentina take on Austria in a mouth-watering Group J clash at Dallas Stadium on Monday.
Having scored his 61st With a career hat-trick (50 for clubs, 11 for Argentina) in the 3-0 win over Algeria, Messi is just one goal away from surpassing Miroslav Klose (16) as the competition’s all-time top scorer.
If he manages to find the net against Austria, the eight-time Ballon d’Or winner will also become the third player in World Cup history to score in six consecutive matches.
While France’s Just Fontaine and Brazil’s Jairzinho were successful in single tournaments in the 1958 and 1970 editions respectively, Messi’s journey dates back to the high point of the Albiceleste’s long-awaited World Cup triumph in Qatar four years ago.
Despite his advanced age, the 38-year-old’s influence for Argentina shows no signs of waning. He was directly involved in eight of their 10 shots against Algeria (6 shots, 2 chances created), and will look just as influential against Austria.
While Messi’s attacking performance has rightly grabbed the headlines, it’s also worth nothing that Lionel Scaloni’s side managed to prevent Algeria from getting a single shot on target.
If they beat Austria and Jordan fail to get the better of Algeria, they will be guaranteed to qualify as group winners and face the runners-up from Group H.
Austria could also win the group if they win this match, but they will need to improve after long periods of work in the opening 3-1 victory over Jordan.
“We know how good Argentina are,” said young midfielder Paul Wanner. “We respect them, but we have confidence in our strengths. If we bring our qualities on the pitch, we will cause problems for any team.”
After seeing Romano Schmid’s opener canceled by Ali Olwan, we had to wait until the 76thth minute when Austria regained the lead – and that only happened when Yazan Al Arab scored an own goal.
Marko Arnautovic’s late penalty only helped make the scoreline more convincing than the performance actually had been.
Yet Austria are on a four-game winning streak in all competitions and have triumphed in 10 of their last 12 matches, with one draw and one defeat.
If they manage to record another victory against Argentina, it will be the first time since 1982 that they have started a World Cup with consecutive victories.
Austria, however, are concerned about the availability of David Alaba, Stefan Posch – who had a special mask made after breaking his jaw against Jordan – and Alessandro Schöpf. The trio have been training separately from the rest of the team and are facing a race to get fit.
Marcel Sabitzer plans to keep his place in the lineup and win his 100th selection, which places him tied with Aleksandar Dragovic for fourth on Austria’s all-time appearances list. Only Andreas Herzog (103), Alaba (114 before this match) and Arnautovic (134 before this match) are now ahead of him.
For Argentina, Scaloni is expected to make a few changes, with one of them perhaps seeing Gonzalo Montiel make way for Nahuel Molina after the latter recovered from a slight muscle strain.
Argentina vs Austria Head to Head
There isn’t much history between these two teams, with their only previous meetings being friendlies and the most recent taking place 36 years ago.
It was a 1-1 draw in Vienna, where their 1980 encounter had also taken place. It ended in a 5-1 victory for Argentina – a match which included Diego Maradona’s only international hat-trick.
Argentina have lost just one of their last eight World Cup group stage matches against European nations (W4 D3), with Croatia beating them 3-0 in 2018.
Austria, meanwhile, has always struggled against its South American opponents. Since a 1-0 victory over Chile in the 1982 World Cup, they have won just one of their 10 matches against such opposition (D4 L5), with that victory coming against Uruguay in a friendly in November 2017.
Argentina vs Austria Prediction
Argentina look set to make it two wins out of two, with supercomputer Opta putting their win probability at 61.1%.
There is a 21.9% chance that the spoils will be shared, the probability of Austria springing an upset and winning all three points is calculated at 17.0%.
Argentina vs Austria Teams
Argentina: Juan Musso, Gerónimo Rulli, Emiliano Martínez, Nicolás Tagliafico, Gonzalo Montiel, Lisandro Martínez, Cristian Romero, Nicolás Otamendi, Facundo Medina, Nahuel Molina, Leandro Paredes, Rodrigo De Paul, Valentín Barco, Giovani Lo Celso, Exequiel Palacios, Thiago Almada, Alexis Mac Allister, Enzo Fernández, Julián Alvarez, Lionel Messi, Nico González, Giuliano Simeone, Nico Paz, José Manuel López, Lautaro Martínez.
Austria: Alexander Schlager, Florian Wiegele, Patrick Pentz, David Affengruber, Kevin Danso, Stefan Posch, David Alaba, Philipp Lienhart, Phillipp Mwene, Alexander Prass, Marco Friedl, Michael Svoboda, Alessandro Schöpf, Marko Arnautovic, Michael Gregoritsch, Sasa Kalajdzic.
Predicted line-ups of Argentina vs Austria
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