Solid Argentina to frustrate England

England look to make it two wins from as many games in Group D against an unfamiliar opponent in Argentina that they have not come up against since the 2007 edition of the tournament. The Lionesses got past Scotland 2-1 in their opener, a closer scoreline than they would have been hoping for especially going into the break two goals to the good, but the three points was the main thing for Phil Neville’s side. Argentina frustrated Japan in a goalless draw, their opponents that day are expected to qualify out of the group with England, but Scotland as well as the Argies will have a lot to say about that in this round of fixtures.

Favourable record for the English

England have only lost two world cup group games and none of those have been against a team of a lower ranking than them. England are third in the world with Argentina in 37^th place so they are very strong favourites going into this one. This is La Albiceleste’s first appearance in a World Cup since 2007, in their opener they did not manage to register a touch in the Japanese’s 18-yard box until the 65^th minute but they hung on to get a point on the board. Defence is certainly their strength and will look to frustrate England for long periods in this encounter. The Lionesses have never lost against South American opposition and they beat Argentina 6-1 in the 2007 World Cup. 15 out of the Argies’ last 20 matches have had over 2.5 goals and more recently they have failed to score in four of their last five.

Approach

All but progression into the last 16 will be confirmed with a win here for England and they should do just that. They fluffed their lines considerably in the game against Scotland with as many shots off target as they had on, they will need to be more clinical against Argentina, the underdogs will be happy to sit behind the ball and let England try and break them down. The Argies managed to limit Japan to just three shots on target in the 90 minutes so England likely to deploy their familiar 4-3-3 formation will need to be unpredictable in their build-up play if they are going to have a comfortable evening on Friday.

England will get past Argentina but they will have to work for it and use possession well as they will have plenty of it. They beat Argentina 6-1 in their last meeting but they had beaten Scotland 6-0 as recently as 2017 and that was a difficult test.

England – Argentina Betting Tip

England to Win + Under 3 goals with Bet365 at odds of 12/5.

Bet England to Win + Under 3 goals on Bet365