Australia will be playing its second knockout game in the FIFA World Cup. They will be locking horns against Argentina on Sunday 4 December in Qatar. They defeated Denmark by 1-0 in their final Group D match to book their place in the 2022 World Cup round of 16. Lionel Messi’s Argentina will be eagerly waiting for Australia as they recovered a shocking  2-1  loss to  Saudi Arabia to finish top of Group C.


Facts about Australia and Argentina:


1. Lionel Messi created five chances in Argentina’s 2-0 win over Poland, taking his tally to 63 in the World Cup overall. Since 1966, the only player to create more chances at the World Cup is fellow Argentine Diego Maradona (67).


2. Matthew Leckie has been directly involved in two of Australia’s three goals at the 2022 World Cup (1 goal, 1 assist). He’s one of only three players to score and assist in a single World Cup for Australia, along with Tim Cahill (2 goals, 1 assist) and John Aloisi in 2006 (1 goal, 2 assists).


3. Lionel Messi is looking to score in the knockout stages of the World Cup for Argentina for the first time, with all eight of his goals coming in the group stage. He’s had 23 efforts without scoring in the knockout stages, although he has assisted in the round of 16 in each of the 2010, 2014 and 2018 editions, making him the only player to assist in the knockout stages of the three previous tournaments.


4. Argentina have only faced 11 shots across their three games at the 2022 World Cup; no team have allowed fewer in the tournament so far. Indeed, this is the fewest shots that Argentina have allowed in a first round group stage of a World Cup tournament on record (since 1966).


5. Australia have won each of their last two World Cup matches, as many as in their first 17 games in the competition combined (D4 L11). They have also opened the scoring in all three games in 2022, having only done so twice in 16 games across the 1974, 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018 tournaments.


6. Australia have reached the knockout stages of the World Cup for only the second time, also doing so back in 2006 under Guus Hiddink. They lost 1-0 to Italy in the round of 16 that year, with Francesco Totti scoring a last-minute penalty to eliminate them.


7. Argentina were eliminated at the round of 16 stage in the 2018 World Cup, losing to eventual winners France. They’ve never gone out before the quarter-final stage in consecutive World Cups since the round of 16 was introduced in 1986, last going out before the last-eight in consecutive years in 1958 and 1962 (eliminated in first group round both times).


8. This will be Australia’s fifth World Cup match against a South American opponent, with the Socceroos winless in the previous four (D1 L3). Argentina’s only previous meetings with a team from Oceania are their seven games against Australia, none of which have come in the World Cup.


9. Australia’s only win over Argentina in seven meetings (D1 L5) was back in July 1988 in the Australia Bicentenary Gold Cup, winning 4-1 with goals from Paul Wade, Charlie Yankos (x2) and Vlado Bozinoski. Current manager Graham Arnold also played in the match for the Socceroos.


10. This is the first meeting between Argentina and Australia since a September 2007 friendly, won 1-0 by Argentina thanks to a goal from Martin Demichelis. It’s their first ever meeting at the World Cup.