\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\t The Argentine mens national football team is set to take on its Swiss counterpart on Saturday, eyeing a spot in the tournaments semifinals. The match, to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, is scheduled to kick off at 10 p.m. Argentina time.<\/p>\n
Argentina reaches the quarterfinals after a bumpy road to the last eight. A nearly flawless group stage, in which the Albiceleste beat Algeria 3-0, Austria 2-0 and Jordan 3-1, gave way to back-to-back 3-2 wins. The first was a rollercoaster game against Cape Verde that went into extra time, followed by a miracle comeback from two goals down against Egypt.<\/p>\n
Now, the team coached by Lionel Scaloni enters the quarterfinals at full strength. The injury concerns that clouded the beginning of the tournament are a distant memory now, as even players who relapsed, such as Cristian Cuti Romero and Nicols Tagliafico, are fully fit again.<\/p>\n
Hence, you can expect an ideal Argentine lineup to go out against the Swiss, with Emiliano Dibu Martnez as goalkeeper and a back four of Nahuel Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martnez, and Tagliafico.<\/p>\n
In midfield, the trio of Rodrigo De Paul, Enzo Fernndez, and Alexis Mac Allister will likely be joined by Boca Juniors Leandro Paredes after his impressive performance against Egypt, which included a last-ditch tackle on what couldve been the African teams third goal.<\/p>\n
Up top, a disappointing performance by Julin lvarez will likely see Lautaro Martnez return to the starting 11 to join star and captain Lionel Messi up top.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Switzerland is on a historic run. Led by Swiss football coach and former player Murat Yakin, the European team made it into the tournament\u2019s top eight for the first time in 72 years.<\/p>\n
It came out on top in Group B, after beating Canada, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Qatar. In the Round of 16, it defeated Algeria 2-0 in a commanding performance but required a penalty shootout to get past Colombia, where it was largely outdone by the Cafeteros and was lucky to come out of 120 minutes of play with a 0-0 score.<\/p>\n
Switzerland features several players from top European teams, such as Inter Milans Manuel Akanji, former Arsenal man Granit Xhaka, and Stade Rennes Breel Embolo. It is known for being a well-organized, compact team that is very difficult to break down, conceding few goals and looking to score on the counterattack.<\/p>\n
A storied matchup Argentina and Switzerland have faced off several times, including twice in the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Their first-ever duel was at the 1966 tournament, in England, during the group stage. It was the last game of Group 2 in the opening phase, which secured the Albicelestes trip to the quarterfinals. There, Argentina was ousted by the locals, who could once again become its rivals if they got past the Swiss.<\/p>\n
Further clashes occurred as international friendlies, with three Argentina wins and two ties, before the two teams faced off in the 2014 World Cup round of 16.<\/p>\n
The Albiceleste won 1-0 thanks to an ngel Di Mara goal in the 118th minute of extra time, in a match that famously featured a 120th-minute headed shot off the post by midfielder Blerim Dzemaili, which would likely have sent the series to a penalty shootout.<\/p>\n
Cover image: Seleccin Argentina Twitter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Argentine mens national football team is set to take on its Swiss counterpart on Saturday, eyeing a spot in the tournaments semifinals. The match, to be played at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, is scheduled to kick off at 10 p.m. Argentina time. Argentina reaches the quarterfinals after a bumpy road to the last […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":88759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5063,66,1373,67,339],"tags":[5307,1368,1371,1369,3576],"class_list":["post-88758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-2026-world-cup","category-football","category-lionel-messi","category-sports","category-world-cup-2026","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-football","tag-lionel-messi","tag-sports","tag-world-cup-2026"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/service.codeus.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}