Argentina were far from their best in their opening match with Bosnia and Herzegovina. They were gifted an own goal three minutes into the match, and then got a much needed moment of brilliance from superstar Lionel Messi. The Argentinians looked timid defensively at times against the Bosnia and Herzegovina attack, and they didn’t commit the numbers forward that most expected. In the match against Iran they will want to show that they are ready to grab with World Cup by the horns and cement themselves as the tournaments’ second favorites. They’ll control the ball for something near 70% of the match but breaking down the incredibly compact Iran defense will not be an easy task. Expect Argentina to throw everything they have at Iran early to try and score one and open up the stronghold in front of the Iranian net, but frustration may set in if they don’t score early against a team they believe is far inferior.
Carlos Quieroz got exactly what he asked for in Iran’s first match with Nigeria. His team played tight on defense and they had two or three chances going forward, one of which took a masterful save to keep Reza Ghoochannejhad from heading one home. Nigeria held possession for 63% of the match yet only took 10 shots and six on net. Iran looked difficult to solve and they didn’t find themselves out of position a single time in the match. Going up against Argentina will be a completely different assignment though. Iran will see even less of the ball, the attacking chances will be even fewer and farther between, and the Argentinian attack is light-years beyond anything Nigeria threw at them. This being said, it’s still hard to believe Iran would concede more than twice in any match. In their last 25 matches, they’ve allowed more than two goals just once and let in one or fewer in 23 of them. Iran have not seen anything like they’ll see against Argentina, but they still should be able to hold strong a good portion of the match.
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