Argentina against Iceland. The type of improbable, glorious match-up which only happens at a World Cup.
Lionel Messi and Co go up against a tiny island playing in its first World Cup but the mismatch is not as seismic it may seem to be.
Two-time winners Argentina had their struggles during qualification and Iceland, England’s conquerors at Euro 2016, rode the crest of a golden wave to earn their rightful place at the game’s greatest competition.
Here’s the talking points from the Group D opener.
CAN AGUERO GET THE BEST OUT OF MESSI?
The word from the Argentina camp is that Sergio Aguero, and not Gonzalo Higuain, will be the nominal spearhead of an attack which revolves around the one and only Lionel Messi.
While this sounds like a positive change of plan the danger is of looking at this through a Manchester City-emblazoned kaleidoscope.
Aguero is not the same player for Argentina. Go back through this year, then 2017 – yes, keep going – and you’ll eventually land on his last competitive goal for La Albiceleste … in June 2016.
Despite Argentina’s moribund attack, that record is puzzling. Aguero would seem an able foil for Messi, with quick-twitch movement in the penalty box and enough pace to run in behind and unglue some eyes off the main man.
He has yet to score a goal at a World Cup too. But what should breed hope on his third attempt is that he has not kicked a competitive ball since April after undergoing minor knee surgery. Two months to focus all his conditioning on Russia – there’s no excuse for looking leggy this time around. Messi needs his old mate to perform.
FIRST EUROPE, NOW THE WORLD FOR ICELAND
In the European qualifiers for the 2010 World Cup, Iceland drummed up one win – as many as the Faroe Islands, about the only country whose population is dwarfed by their near-neighbours.
It’s taken just eight years for Iceland to kick their minnows tag into the dirt along with the reputations of nations with a much deeper pool of resources.
A project started by Lars Lagerback in 2011 is now headed by native Heimir Hallgrimsson after the Swede’s retirement in the aftermath of that glorious run to the Euro 2016 quarter-finals.
Little has changed in the last two years. Iceland are not going to play like it’s 1970 and they’re Brazil. They are defensively compact and technically sound, with a couple of flair players in Premier League duo Gylfi Sigurdsson and Johann Berg Gudmundsson. Alfred Finnbogason, of Augsburg, has been in fine fettle in the Bundesliga.
Iceland are surgical in the way they attack and Halgrimsson, still a part-time dentist, will be confident of applying anesthetic to an often disjointed Argentine attack.
RAW OR WELL-DONE?
In what could be Messi’s last World Cup it is almost a crime that Argentina’s build-up has been so chaotic.
Two extremely ill-advised friendlies were cancelled meaning they have played just one game, against a Haiti side ranked 104th in the world, in the last three months.
Given coach Jorge Sampaoli arrived towards the end of a qualification campaign which was nearly botched, you’d think the wisest move would be to ensure there are no hiccups along the way. Especially as Sampaoli, renowned for his high-press and extremely attacking philosophy, is having to re-engineer his tactical treatise because his players don’t fit the bill.
Or perhaps it is a blessing in disguise. There has been more time on the training pitch (though that put paid to an unfortunate Manuel Lanzini) and there’s not much evidence of Sampaoli’s declared ‘2-3-3-2’ formation in action, for better or for worse.
Undercooked – or marinated just right?
