The map of the Argentine national team to continue in the World Cup: the infallible results, what can’t happen and the optimistic historical data

The last thing you lose is hope. And in bad weather, face yourself, the grandmothers said and continue to say. Argentina lost 2-1 against Saudi Arabia in their debut and will have to improve their performance accompanied by results to qualify for the round of 16, a stage in which – they also say – ‘another’ World Cup begins.

The map is as follows: two wins against Mexico and Poland will deposit him in the next instance; as well as a defeat next Saturday before the Aztecs automatically eliminated it; Y a draw might do depending on what happens shortly before between Poles and Arabs.

A good? The last three defeats of the national team on debut, went to the next round.

In the previous 21 editions, only four nations have stumbled on their debut and then played for the title final. One was Argentinathe historic defeat against Cameroon at the start of Italia 90.

“If we go back in round one, I will kidnap the pilot and shoot down the plane”was the message of Carlos Salvador Billardo after the crash against the African team. Luck changed, then they beat the Soviet Union 2-0, drew Romania 1-1 and finished in third place. Despite having had a few minutes of good football in the seven matches played, the national team reached the final, which they lost 1-0 to Germany. After 32 years, that performance is already legendary.

But Argentina was neither the first nor the last. In the Spain 82, Algeria delivered the big surprise of the tournament by beating Germany 2-1. The last two matches of the group stage have not yet been played at the same time. Not even on the same day. On June 24, Algeria beat Chile 3-2 and finished with 4 points equal to Austria. The Germans added two units.

With a 1-0 in favor, the Germans and the Austrians. After 10 minutes of Horst Hrubesch, there was an embarrassing show. The two teams played away from goal, progressed to the second stage and excluded the Algerians. Since 1986, the last date of the group stage has been played at the same time. The Germans lost the final against Italy 3-1.

In 1994, Italy also kicked off the World Cup with a surprise 1-0 defeat to the Republic of Ireland. It was an incredible group where the four teams got four points, with one win, one draw and one loss, all with the same goal difference: 0. The Mexicans scored 3 goals and went first. Ireland and Italy scored 2 goals and the Irish were runners up as they won against each other. Italy managed to qualify as the fourth best third. scrape. Then, he lost the final to Brazil on penalties.

The last time a team lost in their opening game and then played in the final was in South Africa 2010. Spain lost to Switzerland 1-0, then beat Honduras 2-0 and Chile 2- 1 and qualified first in the group on the best goal difference over Chile. They then went on to win and were crowned world champions for the first and only time after defeating the Netherlands 1-0 in the final.

The other encouraging fact for Argentina is that the last three defeats on their debut have progressed to the next phase. In 1990, he reached the final. In 1982, when they lost against Belgium 1-0, in the second round of the group stage. And in 1974, after losing 3-2 against Poland, they also qualified for the semi-final.

The same hadn’t happened before: in Sweden 58 lost 3-1 to West Germany and failed to get past the group stage and in Italy 34 lost 3-2 to Sweden in the round of 16 and it was their debut and goodbye.