Day: March 22, 2018

These two teams are favourites for the World Cup later this year n Russia and this game gives them an opportunity to test themselves and get a psychological edge over the other.

Germany are current world and Confederations Cup champions, and although they fell short at the last Euros, they remain one of the strongest teams in world football at the moment. They won all their World cup qualifying game and have not lost a game since they were knocked out of Euro 2016.

Timo Werner would be leading their attack in this game and would be looking to score another goal to add to his 7 in 10 international games.

Spain won the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but most of that generation of players have retired and Diego Costa would lead a new generation of players to this year’s competition. They also were unbeaten in their World Cup qualifiers, failing to win just once against Italy.

Alvaro Morata would miss this game through injury, but they have enough quality in attack to match Germany’s firepower.

Spain have 3 wins, 2 losses and 2 draws from their last seven games with Germany.

Argentina almost missed out on qualifying for this summer’s World Cup in Russia after a really poor start to their qualification campaign. However, former Sevilla manager, Jorge Sampaoli stepped in and helped them finish inside the South American qualification places by going unbeaten in their last 4 games, picking 6 points out of a possible 12.

After the qualifiers, they have played two friendlies – a 1-0 win over Russia and a 4-2 loss to Nigeria, they would be looking to get a better result in this high profile game.

Italy would not be in the World Cup later this year.

The Azzurri finished understandably second in their qualification group behind Spain, but they spurned the chance of making it to the global showpiece via the playoffs when they fell 1-0 on aggregate to a very determined Swedish side.

That failure to reach the World Cup cost Gian Piero Ventura his job. Their new manager, Luigi Di Biagio would be looking to get a job on the permanent basis with a good result here.

The Italians have lost just 13% of their last 15 games, while the Argentines have won just 40% of their last 15 games.