Copa America: Can Qatar Break Argentina Hearts?

Argentina vs Qatar

All eyes will be on the Arena Do Gremio on Sunday night where we could see one of the shocks of the tournament so far.

Copa America Qatar vs Argentina has so much more riding on it than anyone expected; and when the teams line up in Porto Alegro there will be palpable excitement on one side and much tension on the other.

Felix Sanchez’ Qatar has put in two performances to be proud of and they, unbelievably, sit above Argentina in Group B on goal difference. Both sides have a chance to qualify for the quarter finals but there is more pressure on Argentina.

Head coach Lionel Scaloni is under some pressure, but with our latest SBOBET odds on an Argentina victory as low as 1.27 you’d have to say we’re pretty confident the Albicelsete will be too strong for the invitees from Asia.

Talking Points

Last chance for Argentina

There’s no getting away from the fact that the Qatar vs Argentina news is likely to centre around one man in particular. Lionel Messi rescued Argentina with an equaliser in a 1-1 draw with Paraguay, and that after losing their opener against Colombia. A defeat would have meant an early exit for the Albiceleste and who knows where that would have left Scaloni, brought in to end his nation’s 26 year trophy drought.

Lionel Messi will need to look for a way to produce positive Copa America results to advance to knockout stage — Lionel Messi celebrates after scoring the penalty kick against Paraguay

Their hopes were hanging by a thread when Paraguay were awarded a penalty with the score at 1-1, but Argentina keeper Franco Armani saved Derlis Gonzalez’s effort. Armani was lucky to be still on the pitch having cynically fouled Gonzalez outside the penalty area towards the end of the first half.

But Argentina is still alive, and Manchester City star, Sergio Aguero, said, before the tournament began, that the whole squad wanted to win the Copa for Messi. They are going to have to show that they can follow up kind words with some serious action on the pitch, starting on Sunday against Qatar.

With Colombia playing Paraguay at the weekend, Argentina fans will be desperately hoping that, with six points already in the bag, Colombia will continue its good form and see off Paraguay. That would mean the Albiceleste can take second place with a victory over Qatar.

Qatar is no pushover

They were expected to be the Group B whipping boys but the Qatar players have turned out to be much harder to beat than many fans expected. They almost held out against a very strong Colombia side, only to be beaten by a late Duvan Zapata header.

Of course Sanchez’ team won the Asian Cup in spectacular fashion earlier this year with young striker Almoez Ali scoring nine times. Ali scored one of the goals of the tournament so far, against Paraguay in a 2-2 draw, to open their debut campaign in the Copa America. He collected the ball on the edge of the penalty area before unleashing an unstoppable shot beyond the Paraguay keeper.

Al-Annabi can still qualify with a positive result against Argentina, either by winning the game and finishing second, or as one of the best third place finishers, and that would be a tremendous achievement.

opacity 0

CLICK HERE
TO SEE UPDATED ODDS

2019 Copa America

History

These two teams have only met once before, back in 2005, in a game Argentina ran out comfortable winners 3-0. Messi played in that game but didn’t score. He won’t mind a similar outcome on Sunday!

Qatar and Argentina come into the match with similar recent records, both winning three games in the last six.

Messi has scored Argentina’s only goal of the campaign, the penalty against Paraguay. If they have still failed to score a goal in open play after meeting Qatar, then some serious questions will be asked.

Argentina missed out on a last eight place at Russia 2018, losing 4-3 to eventual winners France in a scintillating tie, and they’ll be determined to avoid the same fate here in Brazil.

Betting Tip

	Argentina vs Qatar	Argentina Asian Handicap -1.50 @ 1.88
	June 24, 03:00 (GMT+8)

The Qatar vs Argentina betting odds give a generous price on Qatar pulling off a major shock, at 11.00 to win or 4.90 to draw.

Albiceleste have been underwhelming so far in this competition and find themselves bottom of the group with just one game to play; but with Aguero, Messi and Paulo Dybala in the Argentina team, surely they can test one of the least experienced defences in the competition.

It’s high time Scaloni’s stars showed their worth; failure to do some could result in another shock result and a huge backlash back in Argentina.

I think they’ll avoid that for the time being.