Argentina will play Chile in a World Cup qualifier on Thursday night where it is the first placed team in these South American World Cup qualifiers against the last placed team.
Lionel Scaloni’s team in Chile for Thursday’s match where they will play a 9:00 pm kick off time. This is their second match of the 2026 South American World Cup qualifiers, Argentina won the first won 3-0 back in September.
The reigning World Cup champions have a +18 goal difference, having scored 26 goals in the World Cup qualifiers, the most of any team. Lionel Messi leads the goals with six while Chile have scored only nine goals, the second lowest in these qualifiers behind only Peru who have six.
With 31 points, Argentina have already qualified for the 2026 World Cup and are eight points ahead of second placed Ecuador who have 23 points. Chile are in last place with 10 points, tied with Peru but behind on goal difference.
No matter the result, Argentina will remain in first place where as Chile desperately need a win or their hopes of qualifying for the World Cup would be close to coming to an end.
Scaloni is going to make changes to the starting eleven with several players missing due to suspensions and injuries. Giovani Lo Celso and Alexis Mac Allister are out due to injury while Leandro Paredes, Enzo Fernández, Nicolás González and Nicolás Otamendi will miss the match due to yellow card suspension.
Julián Álvarez, Giuliano Simeone and Leonardo Balerdo are all set to start with one of Nico Paz or Thiago Almada set to feature in the starting eleven. Here is the rumored eleven:
Emiliano Martínez; Tagliafico, Balerdi, Romero, Molina; Almada or Paz, De Paul, Palacios, Simeone; Messi and Álvarez
Here are the different kick off times for the match:
Thursday:
United States, Canada: 6:00 pm Pacific
United States, Canada: 9:00 pm Eastern
Argentina: 10:00 pm
Friday:
Ghana: 1:00 am
Scotland, England, Nigeria: 2:00 am
Spain, France, South Africa: 3:00 am
Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Qatar: 4:00 am
Iran: 4:30 am
United Arab Emirates, Oman: 5:00 am
Afghanistan: 5:30 am
Pakistan: 6:00 am
India, Sri Lanka: 6:30 am
Nepal: 6:45 am
Bangladesh: 7:00 am
Indonesia, Vietnam: 8:00 am
Malaysia, Singapore, China: 9:00 am
South Korea, Japan: 10:00 am
Australia: 11:00 am
New Zealand: 1:00 pm
Looks like Messi will sit this one out and Paz will play instead. Good.
Yes, this good for Paz to start and bring on LEO against tired legs🇦🇷VAMOS🇦🇷
Can’t wait for the kick off 🇦🇷🙏🇦🇷