There’s a lot that can happen between now and Sunday when the World Cup final is going to be played. At the time of writing this article, we still don’t know who Argentina’s opponent in the World Cup final is going to be. We’re pretty much going to operate under the assumption that it’s going to be France. What could Argentina do against France to ensure that they are able to come out on top on Sunday? The Croatia game may have just been a perfect blueprint on how the team could look to play the final. Still, there are things to consider when comparing Croatia and France. We’ll get to those in a bit.
Argentina Is Unlikely To Change Their Play Style Against France
In some of the games at the World Cup Lionel Scaloni, Argentina’s head coach, had some trouble deciphering what the opposing team was going to do. That led to difficulties for Argentina in multiple games. For example, they had a tough time with the Saudi pressure in the first game. Also, the defense looked off all game. Both goals came off long balls without too much sense that the defense gifted back to the Saudi offense. Against Mexico, it was Messi magic that broke the deadlock in a tough game. Against the Netherlands they had a tough time defending a player that was just tall and not talented. That’s going to happen when your center back is that short.
When the Croatia game rolled around though it looked like Scaloni had the perfect strategy. He may have stumbled on it by a stroke of luck, but Croatia was willing to play up field. Particularly much more so than they were against Brazil. Argentina kind of waited for them and countered with long runs from Julian Alvarez who proved that the Croatian back line is not suited to play in the open field. France’s back line is probably better suited to do just that, but Argentina also can’t risk giving up open spaces to Mbappé, and company. Expect then Argentina to sit back a bit, and rely a lot on Julian Alvarez’s runs.
Is That Enough When Facing France?
The strategy against Croatia was overly basic. Essentially Argentina started out in a 4-5-1 with Messi almost in a traditional number 10 role. As we said, even heading into the tournament Messi is more willing to play near midfield these days. We thought that could’ve been a weakness for Argentina heading into the tournament. For the most part though, De Paul, Paredes, McAllister, and Enzo Fernandez have more than made up for Messi’s usual lack of pressure on defense. France though could counter with plenty of players on that midfield of their own.
If Griezmann also plays that number 10 role, but is more willing to help out on defense that could leave Argentina outnumbered in the middle of the field constantly. It would be ok if Argentina is just looking to catch France flat footed on a counter, but they would need everything to go right for that work. Plus Argentina will need to be perfect in the back to make sure that one or two goals will be enough to beat France.
Argentina Is Going to Count On Messi Magic
It’s not that Argentina needs to play scared against France, but they need to play smart. If Argentina wants to go blow for blow with this French team they are likely to get blown out of the water. Especially since their left and right back are perhaps the weakest links on the Argentina side. They have to face Mbappé one on one, and some very furious competition even from France’s left and right back who love to go up on the attack. It’s defense and some Messi magic that’s going to be needed for him to lift the World Cup trophy.
