Argentina vs France Predictions

• Argentina and France have scored a 25 goals in their combined 12 World Cup matches so far
• France have kept just one clean sheet in the tournament
• Lionel Messi has five goals in the 2022 World Cup and has scored 15 in his last ten international appearances

Best Argentina vs France betting offers

Messi to lead the charge for the Albicelestes

After four weeks of action and 63 football matches, the fate of the World Cup trophy will finally be decided in Lusail on Sunday as France defend their crown against an Argentina side desperate to give Lionel Messi the send off he deserves.

Messi, who has already confirmed Sunday’s final will be his last World Cup appearance, has been the star of the show in Qatar despite his advancing years and he heads into Sunday’s tie as the frontrunner for both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball, although neither of those awards would mean a thing if they came at the expense of a World Cup winners medal.

The 35-year-old PSG forward has scored five and assisted three so far in the tournament, finding the net in all but one of his appearances and now has 15 goals in his last ten appearances for Argentina. He looks a steal as an anytime goalscorer option, and it may even be worth backing him to score first after he opened the scoring in four of his six World Cup outings.

Scaloni’s system improves after Saudi shock

While Messi has undoubtedly been the best player for the Albiceleste’s, he’s far from the only impressive performer. Julian Alvarez has four goals to his name and the likes of Alexis Mac Allister and Enzo Fernandez have been instrumental in doing the hard work in order to allow Messi to flourish.

They have scored at least twice in five of their six games and lead France in expected goals for (11.8 vs 11.6), expected goals against (2.4 vs 6.7) and shots on target (32 vs 30).

Argentina’s last World Cup success came back in 1986 as they beat West Germany 1986 and they have lost two finals since, but this could be the year they break that duck, especially after they ended their trophy drought with the Copa America title last year.

Les Bleus look towards superstar Mbappe

Of course, France have a superstar of their own and a much more recent history of success in the World Cup.

Kylian Mbappe is 12 years Messi’s junior but already has one World Cup winners medal to his name, while he lags behind his PSG teammate by a just single assist in the Golden Boot race. With France the joint-top scorers in the tournament, backing Mbappe to find the net is an additional option for punters in the market for more goalscorer bets.

Expect goals in Lusail as forwards flourish

While Les Bleus have been scintillating in attack, they look far less convincing at the back. They have conceded in five of their six games and only seven teams have a worse xGA (6.7) figure than Didier Deschamps’ men, which is perhaps unsurprising given the injury problems the manager has had to deal with.

Both of these sides feature arguably the greatest attacking player of their generation in Messi and Mbappe and both have shone brightly in Qatar, so backing both teams to get on the scoresheet is my favourite bet for Sunday night.

Argentina can end World Cup drought in Qatar

France were lucky to keep a clean sheet against surprise-package Morocco in the semi-finals and could easily have lost against England in the previous round. Their shakiness at the back keeps resurfacing and they are facing a striking partnership that have scored ten goals this World Cup, so I fancy Messi to sign off in style with a win on Sunday and land both our pre-tournament outright tip and top goalscorer prediction.

Only two teams have managed to successfully defend a World Cup title and the last of these came in 1962 as a Garrincha-led Brazil team, which featured a young Pele, retained the Jules Rimet. Given France’s defensive issues in Qatar, I fancy Argentina to grind out a win. They have scored exactly two goals in four of their last five matches so a 2-1 correct score prediction appeals, as does an Argentina win & both teams to score bet.

Otamendi, Rabiot & Mac Allister offer niche options

Punters scanning the more niche markets should look towards the Argentina defence for some opportunity in the cards market.

Nicolas Otamendi, Cristian Romero and Marcos Acuna have committed 27 fouls between them – 36% of Argentina’s total fouls – and have each been booked twice.

Otamendi is also worth consideration in the relatively new passing markets, with the former Manchester City player attempting more passes (503) than any other player in the Argentina or France squad, with Rodrigo De Paul (492) and Aurelien Tchouameni (403) other interesting options.

The ever-popular shots markets show up a host of unsurprising names, with Messi and Mbappe leading the way with 14 and 11 shots on target respectively. Julian Alvarez (7) and Olivier Giroud (6) come in behind the two stars, although Adrien Rabiot (3) and Alexis Mac Allister (3) offer more appealling odds at 5/2 and 2/1 respectively.

Build better bets with our free betting tips, predictions and accumulators, every day.