Switzerland has never beaten Argentina in history, history is completely on the side of Lionel Messi and company, so it is easy to see who is the favorite before today's clash at the "Corinthians" arena in Sao Paulo.
And if the national team from the country of watches and chocolate does it right now, the world would see a great sensation, one of the biggest at the World Cup in Brazil, regardless of the fact that in the previous three games, the Argentines, except for the class shown by Messi, did not convince anyone to are a team for big things...
The "Gaućosi" definitely do not die in beauty, nor does coach Alejandro Sabelja want that, as long as he has ten soldiers who faithfully guard Messi's back...
"There must be no mistakes. Every mistake eliminates us now, the name of the opponent is not important. We have to be careful, because there is no way to fix it," said Messi, the scorer of four goals at the World Cup so far.
Messi scored his first hat-trick in his international career exactly against tonight's opponent - it happened in Bern in February 2012 when his Argentina won 3:1. Can he do something similar in Sao Paulo...
"He is difficult, almost impossible to stop. If he has his day, it will be bad for us. But, at no point should we think that we focus exclusively on him. Argentina is not made only by Messi," said Switzerland goalkeeper Diego Benaglio.
Sabelja: We didn't show our true face
Sabella's stamp in this Argentina is still rather faint. He's ready for that to change starting tonight...
"We got all nine points in the group and therefore the job was done properly. But, I am not satisfied with everything I saw, because this team has much more quality than it showed. From this game the knockout phase begins, there is no room for error and I can't wait to see how my players will react when relegation is "hanging" for them," Sabelja said.
Messi against "Alpine" Messi
Switzerland, however, also has a messiah, but, as the media called it long ago, the Alpine one.
It's Bayern striker Xherdan Shaqiri, the guy who scored a hat-trick against Honduras, the first to be scored by a Swiss at the World Cup since 1954.
"We played a bad match against France, losing 5:0, but it's interesting that that match helped us. In the last half hour, we woke up and revived as a team," Šaćiri points out.
The only meeting at the world championships (out of a total of six they played) belonged to Argentina, who won 1966:2 in England in 0.
Hitzfeld's last act?
General (as he was nicknamed in Germany long ago) Otmar Hitzfeld may be fighting his last battle on the Swiss bench tonight, because it has long been known that he will be replaced by former Lazio coach Vladimir Petković after the World Cup. Whether Hitzfeld is already a former coach from tomorrow depends on this game...
"Let Argentina think about us, we have thought about it enough in the past few days. Are we going to mark Messi in particular? It doesn't occur to me, we will set up a tactic in which all 10 players on the field will have a defensive task. Messi is great, I love him as a player, but nothing can impress me. Nothing, except Switzerland's victory, of course," Hitzfeld pointed out.
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