Argentina VS Switzerland

In an intriguing showdown between Diego Maradona and Sepp Blatter’s nations, the former’s heir apparent will seek to showcase more of his delicate nimble skill to beat the impressively muscular Xherdan Shaqiri’s colleagues.

Argentina come into this match having struggled to strike up anything that resembles a team effort so far, with Lionel Messi being the team’s scored and provider. Switzerland have got their campaign back on track through a Shaqiri hat-trick versus the Hondurans after the humiliating 5-2 drubbing at the hands of the quarter-finalist – France.

SWITZERLAND
The Swiss side exited the group stage in rather adequate form, except for the atrociously limp defeat to France. Their main man, Bayern Munich star Xherdan Shaqiri netted a hat-trick in the following fixture to simultaneously see them through and re-assert their position as a team to watch out for.

Ottmar Hitzfeld will not look to waste two or three players man-marking Lionel Messi – instead, he will seek to starve him of the ball and hope he doesn’t light up the match with another unique striker.

PROBABLE STARTING XI

(4-4-2)

          Benaglio
Lichtsteiner———-Rodriguez————Djourou———————Schaer Inler————————-Xhaka—-Shaqiri————————-Behrami
          Mehmedi——Drmic

The Swiss side will seek to fortify their mid-field and not allow a single loose ball to reach the mercurial Lionel Messi. They will press hard and high, and the front two will need to be as clinical as possible in order to score early and keep Argentina chasing the game. From there, they can hold their own and carefully track Di Maria, Messi and Lavezzi (if he plays). They have nothing to lose, and could stun the hosts’ arch-rivals.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Xherdan Shaqiri

The Bayern Munich star has 3 goals already, and if he surpasses James Rodriguez in this match, it seems very unlikely that the Argentines will be able to get through. He will need to keep Mascherano busy with his beefy build, and also make sure that he feeds his strikers well.

ARGENTINA

For the Argentines, playing football in a hostile away stadium in EVERY match is not the easiest way to gel. Their performances have reflected the fact that Brazilian fans in every match have been baying for their blood. It is a testament to Messi’s greatness that the 5-time champions fear his presence in the Maracana on the 13th of July.

Poor results and agricultural play have been lit up by the shining beacon that is their captain. 4 sensational goals have kept his team fighting, and he will look to do the same here.

PROBABLE STARTING XI

(4-3-3)
          Romero
Garay———————-Zabaleta—————Rojo————Fernandez
Gago———————————-Mascherano——————Di Maria
Lavezzi————————-Messi—————————-Higuain

Los Albiceleste will do the only thing their vast array of attacking talent can do: throw every trick and flick in the book at the opponent.

Almost none of those tricks work, except one – Lionel Messi, and their football will be as simple as that: feed Messi, don’t concede. So far its worked out perfect, with a 100% win rate.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Lionel Messi

Why bother asking? His sublime free-kick against Nigeria, delicate dance against Bosnia-Herzegovina and curler against Iran have been his only true moments of glory. They have also been virtual match-winners. The man is sensational, splendid and will score. It is just a matter of limiting him to only one, and preferably not when the scores are even!