Time: Saturday, July 11 at 9 p.m. ET
Venue: Kansas City Stadium
Money Line: Argentina -325, Switzerland +250
Argentina is the defending World Cup champion but hasn’t looked particularly sharp through the round of 16. It narrowly avoided an upset against Cabo Verde in the round of 32, and it had to overcome a late two-goal second-half deficit to push past Egypt.
It has largely felt, to this point, that La Albiceleste has done just enough to allow Messi’s heroics to save the day. For long stretches on Tuesday, it genuinely felt like Messi wouldn’t be enough.
“I felt like I had let the team down at an important moment,” Messi said, per The Athletic’s Oliver Kay. “But fortunately, fate had something special for me at the end, and I managed to score the equaliser.”
Argentina, of course, isn’t a one-man team, but it’ll need standouts like Julián Álvarez and Enzo Fernández to make their presence felt against Switzerland in order to advance.
It won’t be a surprise to see the Swiss, sensing that Argentina has been on the brink of an upset, to embrace the underdog role and play a dangerously aggressive brand of football.
Switzerland, of course, is an underdog. It reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 1954, and it outlasted a terrific Colombia squad to get here. Argentina’s defense will be regularly tested by Johan Manzambi, Dan Ndoye, Ruben Vargas, and a potent Swiss attack.
The prediction here is that both defenses lock in and make this a low-scoring game. Messi pulls off some late magic once again, outshining Manzambi and delivering a semifinal berth to Argentina.
Prediction: Argentina 2-1 Switzerland
