Argentina v Saudi Arabia 2022 World Cup Betting Guide

Argentina Team Info – Can Messi Go All The Way?

Argentina are amongst the top teams in the World Cup who are potential title winners. The team had a great run in the CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying games, winning 11 of their 17 games, and drawing 6. They scored 27 goals and only conceded 8, to finish second, behind Brazil. Argentina, a two time World Cup champion nation, had their best recent run in the World Cup in 2014. They had a spotless record up until the final, beating the likes of the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, and more. In the final, they met Germany, for the third time in World Cup history. The first time the two sides met in the final was in 1986, when Diego Maradona's Argentina beat Germany to win their second title. The two sides met again in 1990, but this time Maradona's team lost. In 2014, Lionel Messi's Argentina lost in the final against Germany, denying the fantastically gifted player a World Cup title.

This may be the last chance Messi will have to win the World Cup title, and there will definitely be a lot of pressure on his team to do so. Paulo Dybala, Lautaro Martinez, and Angel Correa play alongside Messi in attack. In midfield, there are players such as Angel Di Maria, Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Paredes, Giovani Lo Celso, and Rodrigo Paul. The Argentine defence has Nicolas Tagliafico, Marcos Acuna, Nicolas Otamendi, Lisandro Martinez, and Cristian Romero. In goal, they can use Emiliano Martinez or Franco Armani.

Saudi Arabia Team Info – Can They Reach the Round of 16?

Saudi Arabia had an impressive AFC qualifiers, topping a group that consisted of the national football teams of Australia, China, Oman, Japan, and Vietnam. Out of their 10 games, they won 7, drew 2 and lost only once, scoring 12 goals and conceding 6. The 2022 World Cup will be Saudi Arabia's sixth appearance in the competition. In their previous World Cup runs, Saudi Arabia has only managed to reach the round of 16 once in their history. That was in 1994, in their World Cup debut. Placed into a group with Belgium, the Netherlands, and Morocco, Saudi Arabia beat both Morocco and Belgium, to finish second in the group. In the round of 16, they came up against Sweden, who beat them 3-1. In the most recent World Cup, Saudi Arabia came in with a terrible start. They were beaten 5-0 by the hosting nation, Russia. They then lost to Uruguay, before beating Egypt in their final game.

The entire Saudi Arabian team plays in the domestic Saudi Professional League. In goal, they can field Mohammed Al-Owais, who plays for Al-Hilal. In defence, there are a number of his teammates from the same club: Yasser Al-Shahrani, Mohammed Al-Breik, Ali Al-Bulaihi, and Saud Abdulhamid. In midfield, they can play Fahad Al-Muwallad, Salman Al-Faraj, Abdullah Otayf, or Abdulellah Al-Malki. Their attack includes Firas Al-Buraikan, Saleh Al-Shehri, and Abdullah Al-Hamdan, although none of these players has scored 10 goals yet. Saleh Al-Shehri scored the most goals in the qualifiers, netting 4 times for his country.

Argentina vs Saudi Arabia Head-to-head

Argentina has faced Saudi Arabia four times, winning twice and drawing twice. They met in the 1988 Bicentennial Gold Cup two times, drawing 2-2 and Argentina winning the second game 2-0. In 1992, they played against each other in the FIFA Confederations Cup, where Argentina won 3-1. Their most recent meeting came in an international friendly in 2012, and the game ended 0-0.

Argentina vs Saudi Arabia Betting Preview

Argentina are the odds on favourite to win this game. After a highly successful qualifying campaign, most punters will expect them to hammer Saudi Arabia. You can bet on Argentina to win, but the odds will be quite short. If you do not fancy the odds, you can always set handicaps, bet on more detailed aspects of the game, or try combining some bets to lengthen the odds.

Asian Handicaps

Handicaps are bets on a team to win by a certain margin or more, you can also set a positive handicap on the underdogs, which essentially gives them a goal buffer. There are three types of handicaps and though they all use the same format of adding or subtracting goals from a team’s score, they have slightly different requirements.

If you bet on Argentina to win with a handicap of -2.5 then you will need Argentina to score 3 or more goals than Saudi Arabia. If that handicap was -3 then Argentina would need to finish the game 4 or more goals in front of their opponents, but if they only managed 3 then the result would be deemed a draw and you would receive your stake back. Your third option is to put a handicap of -2.75 which will require Argentina to finish with 3 or more goals than Saudi Arabia, but if they only finish 3 goals clear, you will receive half your money back. This is because the bet takes half your stake and places it on Argentina with a handicap of -3 and the other half goes on Argentina with a handicap of -2.5.

Over/Under Total Goals

Total goals is a bet that has no relation to which team wins the match as it is only about how many goals will be scored in the match. To place a bet, you can select one of the betting lines and then choose whether the game will end with a number of goals over that line or under. If you think Argentina or Saudi Arabia or both teams will score plenty of goals in the match, you may place a bet on the game to finish with 5 or more goals. If you think the opposite, you can bet on the game to finish with 2 or less goals.

X Goal Sequence

Two, Three, Four and Five goal sequence bets where you need to pick how many goals will be scored in a game, choose which team or teams will score them, and then give the correct order in which they are scored. It is notoriously difficult to predict, but in return, you can receive some massive returns. For example, if you think Argentina and Saudi Arabia will end 3-1, you can pick the four goal sequence and then you have to select the order in which the goals will be scored. There will be an H representing the home team and A representing the away team. In this case, Argentina will be H and Saudi Arabia will be A. You can then pick an order such as H/H/H/A, or H/A/H/H, and so on.

Masses More Betting Opportunities

In addition to the bets listed above, you can find plenty more bets on the match between Argentina and Saudi Arabia. These include options such as Argentina to score in both halves, Saudi Arabia to score the first goal, either team to score in 5 minutes, Argentina to win the first half, Saudi Arabia to score 1.5 goals or less, Argentina to keep a clean sheet, both teams to score, Argentina to reverse the result, and a lot more.

You should always remember to gamble safely and never spend money you cannot afford to lose. There are plenty of ways to gamble responsibly and you can find lots of useful information on the topic at gambleaware.co.uk