2018 World Cup Betting Predictions: Argentina vs. Nigeria Odds

Nigeria delivered with a 2-0 win over Iceland, which means that there isn’t another team in the group other than Croatia that has more than three points. Now Argentina has an opportunity to take down Nigeria in its final group stage match in order to get to four points. On the flip side, Nigeria also control its own road to the Round of 16 as they can clinch a spot with a win on Tuesday.

 2018 World Cup: Argentina vs. Nigeria Betting Analysis

Argentina had the fifth-highest odds to win the tournament before it started. Now they are in danger of failing to make it out of the group stage for the first time since 2002. Argentina absolutely needs a win in order to leapfrog Nigeria and put itself in position to pull ahead of Iceland. Meanwhile, Nigeria has responded following an opening loss to Croatia and looked much better in its win over Iceland. With a little more confidence, it will be interesting to see how this team approaches another must-win situation on Matchday 3.

Argentina

This tournament marks the first time since 1974 that Argentina has failed to win either of its first two World Cup group stage games. It’s the team’s worst scoring start at a World Cup since 2002, when they also managed just one goal through the first two games before falling out of the event in the group stage. While the South American side has a number of problems, there is no doubt they will need more from their superstar in Lionel Messi. Messi was absolutely shut down in the opening half of Argentina’s lopsided loss to Croatia. He took 11 shots in the opener against Iceland but had just 1 shot on goal in the loss to Croatia.

Messi has not scored in his last 647 minutes at the World Cup, which is the longest drought of his World Cup career. If he doesn’t find the back of the net against Nigeria, there is a very good chance that Argentina will lose. Messi can’t do it on his own and will need a lot more help. That said, it’s on him to be Argentina’s best player in their biggest game of the tournament so far.

Nigeria

Nigeria turned a lot of heads when it picked up its first win of the tournament and its sixth win versus European opposition when it took down Iceland. Nigeria is now the all-time African leaders in World Cup wins and World Cup goals. There will be no room to rest on what they have accomplished to this point though as they need a win over Argentina to guarantee they get through. The odds are that a point will be enough but don’t expect Nigeria to be conservative in this match.

Nigeria proved its best asset is its speed on the counter attack versus Iceland and now they need to keep their foot on the gas against a suspect Argentina defense. Alfred Musa scored twice for Nigeria against Iceland and will be the key for the African side up front once again in this contest. There will be a lot of pressure on both sides heading in to this contest. Argentina has Messi, but Nigeria looks to be the more complete team of the two heading in to this highly anticipated showdown.

Argentina vs. Nigeria Prediction

 Nigeria 2, Argentina 2