With a chance to start their World Cup qualifying campaign with back-to-back wins, they will visit La Paz to face Bolivia on Tuesday. Argentina, who are world champions, will be hoping to extend their win against Ecuador last Thursday, while hosts Bolivia will need to pick themselves up from a heavy defeat against Brazil.
The 48-team World Cup offers Bolivia an opportunity to potentially reach the final stage for the third time. However, their hopes of reaching the final stages of the World Cup for the first time since 1994 have not been made any more optimistic by the tough schedule, which has seen them start the tournament with two international heavyweights in Brazil and Argentina.
Their qualifying campaign began with an unforgettable game against five-time World Cup winners Brazil, which they lost 1-5, with Rodrigo and Neymar scoring twice each and Rafinha scoring in the second half.
Victor Abrego's 78th-minute goal was little consolation for Bolivia, who will need to be led by Gustavo Costas to take on his homeland in Tuesday's match.
Bolivia have lost five consecutive qualifiers and they will face the world champions as huge underdogs.
Argentina's fighting spirit has shown no signs of waning after beating, on penalties, to win their third World Cup title last December.
Since winning top honors in Qatar, Argentina has won five consecutive matches and is 14-0 overall.
The most recent win came against Ecuador last Thursday, when Messi produced a moment of magic in the 78th minute when his free kick past goalkeeper Hernan Galindez ensured that Argentina started their qualifying campaign with maximum points.
The 1-0 win extended Argentina's unbeaten run to 11 matches thanks to Messi's golden touch, while their loss in the group stage of the 2022 World Cup against was their only defeat in their last 48 matches.
Argentina are confident of continuing their good form on Tuesday, having won seven of their last eight matches against Bolivia, including their most recent match in September 2021, when a Lionel Messi hat-trick helped Argentina to a comfortable 3-0 win.
To summarize, judging from the two teams' recent records and form, Argentina is undoubtedly the side with a better chance of winning in this match. They showed great persistence in their last match and had a great performance on the offensive end. Bolivia, on the other hand, lost their last match, but their advantage at home may give Argentina some trouble.
Therefore, we predict that the result of this match could be: Bolivia 0-3 Argentina. Even if Lionel Messi can't start on Tuesday, Argentina still have a lot of top players and they should put strong pressure on a less confident Bolivian side.
