Current form Russia
For Russia it is slowly but surely serious. The World Cup in their own country is getting closer and closer, the pressure on the “Sbornaja” increases accordingly with each match, especially with every failure, which is referred to there. And of those, there was not too few team boss Stanislav Cherchesov. In nine games, only three wins in three draws and three defeats. After all, they scored 15 goals in these new games, but also conceded twelve. Striking: Russia is currently a kind of lucky bag, holds on the one hand against strong teams very well with, then again turn against significantly weaker rated opponents points. As an example, here can be a 3: 3 against Belgium or a lean 1: 1 against Iran. Also, the Confederations Cup in their own country in the summer of 2016 has shown the Russians with defeats against Portugal (0: 1) and Mexico (1: 2) the limits. After all: In one third of the last nine games of the Sbornaja get three or even more goals, accordingly, we see in the offensive game a clear increase about the aforementioned Confed Cup, where the Russian game seemed static and little fast-paced for long stretches. We see problems with the Russians in a certain aging of the team. Only five squad players of the current squad are younger than 24 years, and most of them have not fully established themselves with their teams. Accordingly, those young players who are currently in the squad are lacking experience in big games. One of the few glimmers of hope in this regard is Aleksandr Golovin of CSKA Moscow. In general, we see the strengths of the Russians, if so, especially in the central midfield. Here you have the mentioned Golovin, Glushakov, Dzagoev and Zobin enough quality. The fact is that in the last few games no real scorer emerged. Only Aleksandr Samedov (RM) and Fedor Smolov (MS) were able to celebrate their goals. The Russian game is currently very focused on possession, but the pace in the attacks often leaves much to be desired, real space gain through fast combinations succeed only very rarely. So also against Iran, as you could celebrate despite two-thirds of game shares and five really good chances for bullets no victory.
Current form Argentina
Unbelievable, but true: Argentina was close to a standstill in 2018 World Cup qualifying for Russia. The lead over Chile, who will not be in the finals, was only two points ahead of Argentina and Uruguay came third in qualifying Group A in South America qualifying. The weak point was – also almost unbelievable – clearly the offensive. Messi & Co scored only 19 goals in 18 games. This put a just as “successful” attack department as Venezuela’s group final, on the whole only Bolivia was even more harmless than the “Gauchos”. In addition, one is still more or less dependent on Lionel Messi, a successor or a catch of a possible absence of the superstar by a closed team performance is barely recognizable. Unsurprisingly, it was the now-30-year-old Barcelona player who scored a hat-trick in the 3-1 draw against Ecuador, who was able to fix the World Cup ticket, and thus de facto single-handedly missing his country in Russia prevented. Seven out of 16 goals went to the account of “La Pulga” in the previous qualification. That Argentina has more individual class available than Russia, a glance at the current squad clear. Players like Agüero, Dybala or di Maria belong to the absolute world class. However, Argentina has not been a member of the team for years, they can not manage to turn the many individual players into a single team. Hope for this is the new coach, Jorge Sampaoli, who has worked very successfully at Sevilla before. In six games of the year 2017, the reigning since June team boss remained unbeaten, celebrating three wins and also recorded three draws. In addition to the victory against Ecuador was also world champion Brazil 1-0 defeated, against Singapore they celebrated a 6-0 spectacle. In general, the Argentines have a very stable defense. In 18 qualifiers, only 16 goals were conceded, in 2017, there were only two in six matches. Playfully, you can expect from the Albiceleste especially attacks on the wings, in terms of speed and technique we see them compared to Russia clear advantage, but not in terms of the physical component.
PREDICTION: Argentina win @ 1.83