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Here’s how the world champions Argentina have got here. It was plain sailing in the groups, with Lionel Messi rattling them in during wins over Algeria, Austria and Jordan …

Pos Team P GD Pts
1 Argentina 3 7 9
2 Austria 3 0 4
3 Algeria 3 -2 4
4 Jordan 3 -5 0

… though things got a bit trickier in the next round. Messi is unquestionably a World Cup legend … but in a different sort of way, Sidny Lopes Cabral is too.

A reminder of how it all began … and a chance to reacquaint yourself with both teams.

Preamble

Messi versus Salah is an awfully reductive way of framing this match. But it is Messi versus Salah. But while you’d expect Messi’s Argentina to have too much for Salah’s Egypt … that Cape Verde match proved nothing is nailed-on. Also …

… and he wasn’t even on the pitch. But the underdog vibes of that day are the same. So you never know. Chances are, Argentina will set up a quarter-final match with either Switzerland or Colombia. But … well … that t-shirt, and that outcome, shows why we’re going to have to go through more than the motions. Kick-off is at 12pm EDT/5pm BST. It’s on!

Updated