Argentina meet Venezuela again just over a month after the two nations clashed in the 2026 World Cup qualifications, but this time, their goals are completely different.
Argentina’s boss Lionel Scaloni made it clear that he will give game time to a lot of new faces in the current international break, so the World Champions may lack some of their usual flair. But this shouldn’t be an issue, as La Seleccion’s squad has more stars than the night sky. And they will have a good reason to give it their best, as Argentina lost their most recent WC qualification (vs. Ecuador), and they haven’t lost back-to-back games since 2016.
Venezuela were well on their way to qualifying to the World Cup and then lost the last three qualification matches. And once again, they remained the only CONMEBOL national team to have never reached the WC proper. The backlash was so extreme that Nicolas Maduro, Venezuela’s president, came forward and sacked Fernando Batista, leaving the national team with Oswaldo Vizcarrondo as interim coach.
How the bookies view it: New match, same result
Argentina’s betting advantage is so massive that it’s almost pointless to discuss the odds, unless you plan to back Venezuela. Anyhow, La Seleccion are available at 1/4, while La Vinotinto can be played at 10/1. The draw, which feels just as unlikely to happen, is priced at 17/4.
Recent head-to-head: Argentina – 24 wins; Venezuela – 2 wins
Argentina and Venezuela have met dozens of times over the past decades and the all-time record is painful. La Vinotinto last beat Argentina in a similar setting in 2019, when they met for a friendly match. And the sad part is that was just their second win over La Seleccion in 29 H2Hs. For the record, Argentina won 24 of those 29 meetings.
Players to watch: Alvarez is unstoppable
Lionel Scaloni promised rotations, although we expect fewer changes in this particular match. However, there have been rumors that Messi will skip the first international match this week and join the team later on. Either way, we don’t expect to see him on the pitch, and we have a better option – Julian Alvarez.
The 25-year-old has been a menace for all of Atletico Madrid’s opponents since the start of the season and has seven goals and three assists in nine appearances. These include a brace against Real Madrid, a hat-trick against Rayo, and three contributions against Eintracht Frankfurt right before the international break.
Probable line-ups
Argentina: Martinez, Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico, De Paul, Mac Allister, Simeone, E Fernandez, Alvarez, Martinez
Venezuela: Graterol, Ferraresi, Vivas, Balbo, Azuaje, Aramburu, Casseres, Segovia, Andrade, Kelsy, Ramirez
Anything else catch the eye?
No matter the angle, we can’t imagine a way for Venezuela to even reach Martinez’s goal and score. The teams met a month ago and the match was completely one-sided – 76% possession, nine shots on target vs. Venezuela’s zero, and so on.
There is obviously nothing on the line here but Argentina’s streak of not losing B2B games, but we still expect them to get a comfortable win with at least three goals scored.
GambleAware