CNN
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The World Cup has hardly been easy for Lionel Messi and Argentina to date, however they’re sturdy favorites forward of their round of 16 sport towards Australia.
The Socceroos had been a shock bundle in the group levels, qualifying for the knockout rounds in Qatar courtesy of 1-0 victories towards Tunisia and Denmark.
Argentina, in the meantime, bounced again from a shock opening defeat towards Saudi Arabia with 2-0 wins towards Mexico and Poland.
Despite having a penalty saved towards Poland, Messi has performed a vital position in Argentina’s match, scoring twice – together with an outstanding strike towards Mexico – and offering one help.
Defeat Australia – which Argentina has carried out in all however two of the perimeters’ earlier conferences – and the Netherlands or the United States await in the quarterfinals.
But this World Cup has already thrown up a number of upsets, as Saudi Arabia demonstrated in its opening sport towards Argentina. As a end result, supervisor Lionel Scaloni is taking nothing without any consideration.
“Australia is a good team,” he instructed reporters on Friday. “This is soccer, you need to go away theoretical favoritism to the facet and play.
“We ought to adapt ourselves, defensively typically we modify. Australia has its set methods in assault and it received’t change these.
“We will leave our last drop of sweat on the field in this World Cup, we’re going to compete.”
As for Australia, the problem of making an attempt to maintain a 3rd consecutive clear sheet on the match can be a tall order with Messi on the pitch.
“It’s going to be a difficult game, obviously, playing against probably the best footballer ever to grace the game,” defender Milos Degenek stated on Friday. “Apart from that, it’s 11 against 11. There are not 11 Messis, there’s one. We know their squad is full of stars.”
A demanding schedule means the groups have had simply two days to arrange for Saturday’s sport on the Ahmad bin Ali Stadium in Al Rayyan – one thing Degenek alluded to in his press convention.
“It’s something that FIFA need to consider, that we’re not robots, that we are humans, that we do need to recover, and we can’t just play day after day,” he stated. “We need a break as well.”
FIFA didn’t instantly reply to CNN’s request for remark concerning the match scheduling for Australia and Argentina.
In Saturday’s different sport, the Netherlands and the US face one another on the Khalifa International Stadium.
Netherlands vs USA: 10 a.m. Eastern Time
Argentina vs Australia: 2 p.m. ET
US: Fox Sports
UK: BBC or ITV
Australia: SBS
Brazil: SportTV
Germany: ARD, ZDF, Deutsche Telekom
Canada: Bell Media
South Africa: SABC
World Cup round of 16: Lionel Messi and Argentina face Australia in next step towards World Cup glory
World Cup round of 16: Lionel Messi and Argentina face Australia in next step towards World Cup glory
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World Cup round of 16: Lionel Messi and Argentina face Australia in next step towards World Cup glory