Argentina vs Brazil

The Estadio del Bicentenario will play host to the ‘Superclásico de las Américas’ as Argentina and Brazil go head-to-head in a mammoth 2022 World Cup qualifying showdown.

With five games to spare, Argentina can secure a place at next year’s World Cup finals in Qatar with a win over arch-rivals in San Juan should the other results go their way. Despite being denied for the services of their talisman Lionel Messi, ‘La Albiceleste’ can draw confidence from going unbeaten in all 12 2022 World Cup qualifying fixtures so far (W8, D4), winning the last three in a row by an aggregate score of 5-0. Argentina’s impressive showings in the ongoing qualifiers are part of their intimidating 26-match unbeaten run, with Lionel Scaloni’s side notably keeping a clean sheet in their last five World Cup qualifying outings. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that 12 of Argentina’s previous 15 World Cup qualifying encounters at home have featured under 2.5 overall goals.

As for Brazil, an utterly outstanding 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign so far (W11, D1) has seen the ‘Selecao’ become the first South American side to book a ticket for Qatar 2022. A 1-0 home win over Colombia last time out means that Brazil can still make history and become the first CONMEBOL nation to go unbeaten in all 18 matches during a single World Cup qualifying campaign. In addition to their fearsome attacking line, the Brazilians have been hard to penetrate at the back, registering nine clean sheets in 12 World Cup qualifiers while conceding just four times. Topically, Tite’s men have landed eight blank sheets across their last 12 World Cup qualifying matches on foreign soil, further backing a low-scoring theme in San Juan.