Seeking to extend their unbeaten run across all competitions to 30 matches, Argentina will welcome Venezuela to La Bombonera for their World Cup 2022 CONMEBOL qualifier on Friday.
The hosts have already booked their place at this year's tournament in Qatar, while the visitors are one of two South American nations, along with Paraguay, who have already been eliminated.
Match preview
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Argentina have enjoyed a comfortable qualification campaign so far, winning 10 and drawing five of their 15 games, and in November they became the second South American nation, after rivals Brazil, to qualify for this year's showpiece tournament.
Lionel Scaloni's men currently sit second in the standings and they are guaranteed to finish no lower than their current position, but they do still have an outside chance of knocking Brazil off their perch at the summit.
Argentina will need to win their remaining three qualifiers, including their soon-to-be rearranged fixture against Brazil, and hope that the Selecao claim no more than four points from their final three fixtures.
La Albiceleste's next qualifier is, on paper, a favourable encounter with already-eliminated Venezuela; however, they have had mixed fortunes in recent games against La Vinotinto, winning four, drawing two and losing two of the last eight meetings.
Securing at least a draw in Buenos Aires on Friday would see Argentina extend their unbeaten record to 30 games, just seven behind Italy's world-record unbeaten run of 37 international matches.
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After securing an impressive 4-1 victory against Bolivia on January 28, just their third in 2022 CONMEBOL Qualifying, Venezuela then suffered defeat by the same scoreline against Uruguay four days later, a result which ended their hopes of reaching Qatar.
Josef Martinez managed to score his first international goal for nearly three years in the 65th minute, but earlier strikes from Rodrigo Bentancur, Giorgian de Arrascaeta, Edinson Cavani and Luis Suarez condemned La Vinotinto to their 12th defeat in qualifying.
Venezuela's painful wait to qualify for their first ever World Cup finals goes on and their only target heading into their final two matches will be to avoid finishing bottom of the South American standings. Argentinian coach Jose Pekerman currently sees his Venezuelan side at the foot of the table, one place and three points behind Paraguay in ninth.
La Vinotinto have lost all eight of their away games in qualifying, scoring only three goals in the process, but one ray of hope they can take into Friday's clash with Argentina is that they were unbeaten in their last trip to Buenos Aires, claiming a 1-1 draw back in September 2017.
Venezuela's surprise 3-1 friendly victory in March 2019 at the Wanda Metropolitano in Madrid against a strong Argentina side, including Lionel Messi and co, should also provide Pekerman's men with confidence this week.
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Team News
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Argentina will be without nine players this month, including Emiliano Martinez, Cristian Romero, Emiliano Buendia and Giovani Lo Celso, who have all received two-game suspensions as they were deemed to have breached COVID-19 protocols against Brazil back in September last year.
Lautaro Martinez is unavailable after testing positive for coronavirus, while Paulo Dybala, Marcos Acuna, Lisandro Martinez and Alejandro Gomez are all sidelined with injuries.
Lionel Messi has returned to the senior squad, after recovering from a bout of COVID-19 last month, and the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner is expected to start, with two of Angel Di Maria, Julian Alvarez, Angel Correa, Joaquin Correa and uncapped Lucas Boye set to join him in attack.
Nicolas Otamendi and Nicolas Tagliafico are available to play on Friday after serving one-match suspensions last time out, and they will likely play at centre-back and left-back respectively.
Leandro Paredes and Rodrigo De Paul also served one-game bans last month and the midfield duo could be handed starts alongside Guido Rodriguez.
As for Venezuela, Cristian Casseres is available to play after serving a one-match suspension last month and he is set to compete with Jose Martinez for a starting place in centre-midfield alongside 115-cap Tomas Rincon.
Experienced defender Roberto Rosales will be hoping to replace Ronald Hernandez at right-back, joining Jhon Chancellor, Nahuel Ferraresi and Oscar Gonzalez in the back four.
Everton striker Salomon Rondon, who scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Bolivia in January, could keep his place up front ahead of Josef Martinez, while Darwin Machis and Yeferson Soteldo will likely start on the flanks.
Argentina possible starting lineup:
Armani; Molina, Otamendi, Martinez Quarta, Tagliafico; De Paul, Rodriguez, Paredes; Messi, J. Correa, Di Maria
Venezuela possible starting lineup:
Farinez; Rosales, Chancellor, Ferraresi, Gonzalez; Martinez, Rincon; Machis, Otero, Soteldo; Rondon
We say: Argentina 2-0 Venezuela
While Venezuela can play with no pressure in Buenos Aires, having already been eliminated, Argentina will be looking to keep their slim hopes of finishing above table toppers Brazil alive with a victory on Friday.
Even though La Albiceleste have a number of absentees, we expect them to secure a routine win on home soil and extend their impressive unbeaten run.
Top tip
Oliver Thomas
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Argentina win with a probability of 68.91%. A draw had a probability of 21.5% and a win for Venezuela had a probability of 9.58%.
The most likely scoreline for an Argentina win was 1-0 with a probability of 18.33%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (16.33%) and 3-0 (9.7%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 0-0 (10.29%), while for a Venezuela win it was 0-1 (5.07%). The actual scoreline of 3-0 was predicted with a 9.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that Argentina would win this match.
Argentina
Uruguay
Ecuador
Colombia
Brazil
Paraguay
Bolivia
Venezuela
Chile
Peru
