Argentina eventually made the most of their numerical advantage after Switzerland went down to 10 men in their quarter-final clash.
Lionel Scaloni’s side couldn’t find a breakthrough inside 90 minutes, forcing the tie into extra time. Their pressure eventually paid off, with two additional goals sealing a hard-fought 3-1 victory and booking a mouth-watering semi-final clash with England.
Here are our Scout Notes from the match, featuring match stats from our World Cup Toolkit page.
ARGENTINA 3-1 SWITZERLAND (AET)
- Goals: Mac Allister, Alvarez, L. Martinez | Ndoye
- Assists: Messi, Lopez, Almada | Rodriguez
- Tackles bonus: Mac Allister
- Top Points scorers: Mac Allister (9), Alvarez (7), Martínez (7)
TEAM STATS
PLAYER STATS
SCOUT REPORT
- Argentina named an unchanged side from their dramatic 3-2 victory over Egypt in the Round of 16. Ahead of the quarter-final, manager Lionel Scaloni had hinted that he could stick with the same starting XI, saying:
“It wouldn’t be unreasonable to repeat the same team, although there could also be a change. In principle, we’ll line up very similarly to the other day.”
- There were also question marks over whether Nicolás Tagliafico ($4.3m) or Facundo Medina ($4.0m) would start at left-back. Tagliafico got the nod from the outset.
- Interestingly, when he came off in the 78th minute, Nico González ($5.6m) replaced him rather than Medina. Scaloni later explained that Argentina have been carefully managing the minutes of their full-backs, saying:
“Montiel and Molina should be fairly even for minutes… and we have done the same on the left. Now, with Medina and Tagliafico, we are also managing their minutes.”
- That suggests we could continue to see rotation in the full-back positions, making the players affected less appealing to Fantasy managers moving forward.
- There was also plenty of uncertainty over who would start between Lautaro Martínez ($8.8m) and Julián Alvarez ($8.6m). Alvarez ultimately got the nod and played the full 120 minutes, while Martínez came on late for Rodrigo De Paul ($5.9m). Taking that into account, along with his back-to-back starts, Alvarez should still have the edge over Martínez ahead of the semi-finals.
- Looking at the overall match statistics, Argentina appear to have dominated. La Albiceleste controlled 59% of possession and generated 1.94 xG (expected goals). They also created four big chances and registered a huge 22 attempts on goal. Switzerland, meanwhile, produced just one big chance and 0.47 xG. However, a second-half red card for Breel Embolo has to be factored in. The game was level at 1-1 at the time, with the Swiss deservedly equalising and on top for large periods.
- Going forward, indeed, Argentina were not entirely convincing.
- Even if he was not at his vintage best, Lionel Messi ($10.0m) played a central role in the victory. He once again dominated the attacking statistics, leading his teammates for both shots and key passes. Messi delivered the corner that Mac Allister headed home in the 10th minute. He then had an excellent opportunity to lob the goalkeeper from close range. Leandro Paredes ($5.6m) created the chance with a clever ball over the Switzerland defence. A curling effort late in the game failed to test the goalkeeper, but Messi came close to adding a Fantasy assist. Lisandro Martínez ($4.6m) met one of his corners with an excellent acrobatic effort, only for the goalkeeper to produce a brilliant save.
- Lisandro Martínez proved vital at both ends of the pitch. As well as showing his attacking threat from Messi’s corner, the defender made a crucial last-ditch tackle. It prevented what looked like a certain Switzerland goal.
- Mac Allister was also instrumental. The Liverpool midfielder opened the scoring before coming close to adding another headed goal during the latter stages of normal time. Switzerland blocked his close-range effort, but Mac Allister still rewarded his owners with a nine-point return.
- Enzo Fernández ($7.5m) collected 10 points for his efforts in the previous round but failed to replicate that attacking output against Switzerland. In fact, the midfielder struggled to influence the game in the final third and produced just 0.06 xGI (expected goal involvement).
- Argentina were not particularly prolific from an attacking perspective. Alvarez’s underlying numbers reflected that. Outside of his brilliantly placed finish, which found the top-right corner of the Switzerland net to make it 2-1, he created just two chances for his teammates.
- Meanwhile, Lautaro Martínez came off the bench late in the game and also found the net. That keeps the competition for the centre-forward role very much alive.
- No fresh injury concerns emerged after the match. However, Scaloni made the following comments, which could hint at further rotation:
“We faced an opponent who caused us major physical problems. We struggled to win duels and struggled to put five or six passes together.”
- Regardless, Argentina have arguably looked just as unconvincing as their semi-final opponents, England. That could leave Fantasy managers with some difficult decisions to make ahead of the next round.
