The reigning World Cup champions, Argentina, have made it through to the quarter-finals, but, as in their game against Cape Verde, they needed late drama to progress. Standing in Lionel Messi and co.'s way in the last eight is a Switzerland side that ground out a penalty shoot-out victory over Colombia.
Argentina were staring at a humiliating last-16 exit in the face as they found themselves 2-0 down to Egypt with just 11 minutes of the 90 remaining. However, the South Americans showed that they are made of tough stuff as they scored three times in the space of 14 minutes to secure a thrilling 3-2 victory.
Switzerland should count themselves lucky to have made it through their match against Colombia as they were outplayed, in terms of chances created, in what turned out to be an entertaining goalless draw. In the end though, the Swiss held their nerve when it came to the spot-kicks, running out 4-3 winners.
Each of Argentina's last three matches at the World Cup have ended with both teams scoring, causing their own defence to come under some serious scrutiny. Egypt's attack cut through the South Americans' defence all too easily at times, something that Switzerland will be looking to exploit this weekend.
However, both teams scored in each of Switzerland's opening three matches at the 2026 World Cup, and while they did manage to keep clean sheets against Algeria and Colombia in their knockout rounds, keeping Messi from scoring and Argentina from finding the back of the net is a much tougher task.
Arguably, the greatest football player of all time, Lionel Messi, has scored in a record six straight World Cup knockout matches, following his equalising goal against Egypt on Tuesday evening.
The 39-year-old, who has scored eight goals at the 2026 World Cup, has once again shone for his country on the biggest stage of them all, taking Argentina to within two wins of back-to-back World Cup finals.
Messi has scored in all five of Argentina's matches at this World Cup, and we're backing the Inter Miami forward to score against Switzerland on Sunday. In terms of the final scoreline, we believe that Argentina's firepower will prove enough to down a well-organised Switzerland side during the 90 minutes, in a game that we expect both teams to score in.
Argentina 2-1 Switzerland
