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Argentina vs Venezuela Prediction & Betting tips
From the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid we will be served the South American get-together between Argentina and Venezuela on Friday evening. The spotlights are mainly focused on Lionel Messi, who is making a comeback with the Argentines.
Argentina:
The Argentine football fans can breathe relieved again, because after more than eight months of absence, Lionel Messi will finally have the beautiful shirt of La Albiceleste on their shoulders again. Initially it seemed that the best football player in the world had had enough of his international career, because his performance with the national team is in stark contrast to that at FC Barcelona. However, Messi cannot do without Argentina, and Argentina cannot do without Messi. Next summer, La Pulga and the Argentineans in the Copa America will again look for eternal fame, because a gold medal at the 2008 Olympic Games and a victory at the 2005 Youth World Championship is of course far too little for someone who has been around for 15 years plays the leading role on the global football scene.
The return of Messi naturally sounds like music in the ears of national coach Lionel Scaloni. He will have to find a way to show off his talisman as well as possible, but at the same time he wants to prevent his team from becoming too dependent on him. Scaloni certainly has a different plan in mind than its predecessor Jorge Sampaoli, who put Messi in the eighth finals of the World Cup against France at number nine. Scaloni probably wants to bet in a 4-2-3-1 formation as one of the attacking midfielders, together with Angel Di Maria and Lautaro Martinez. Who will be the deep striker is still unclear. Mauro Icardi, Gonzalo Higuain and Sergio Agüero have passed and will therefore in any case not be. Other notable absences are Nicolas Otamendi, Marcos Rojo, Erik Lamela and Ever Banega.
Venezuela:
Venezuela is the odd man out in the football crazy South America. After all, baseball is the main popular sport there, although the futbol is clearly catching up. In 2017, the country reached the final of the World Cup for players under 20, in which it narrowly lost to England. However, it does mean that there is a golden generation that El Vinotinto can use for years to come. No fewer than eight players from that youth World Cup are now in the selection of national coach Rafael Dudamel, who was not entirely inadequate as the national coach at that World Cup.
Like Argentina, Venezuela is naturally also preparing for the Copa America this coming summer. In the previous edition, the country managed to reach the quarter-finals, but then Argentina turned out to be a size 4-1. Venezuela was hardly involved in the South American World Cup qualification, so it is time to put things right again with a series of good results. With names such as Tomas Rincon (Torino), Salomon Rondon (Newcastle United) and Josef Martinez (Atlanta United), Dudamel does have some nice players at his disposal in addition to the talented youth.
Argentina vs Venezuela head to head matches
06.09.17 WC Argentina Venezuela 1 : 1
07.09.16 WC Venezuela Argentina 2 : 2
19.06.16 COP Argentina Venezuela 4 : 1
23.03.13 WC Argentina Venezuela 3 : 0
12.10.11 WC Venezuela Argentina 1 : 0