Cape Verde, then perhaps Egypt or Australia, before a possible Colombia or Switzerland in the quarter-finals… On paper, Argentina’s path in this World Cup almost looks like a quiet tour. Enough to revive an old refrain: the Albiceleste are once again being favored by FIFA.
Does Lionel Messi receive special treatment from FIFA? It is true that, when looking at Argentina’s knockout-stage bracket, questions can be asked. But the reality is simpler: the draw was not fixed for Messi and his teammates. As in a tennis tournament, the best nations in the FIFA ranking were protected. Spain, Argentina, France and England could not meet before the semi-finals. The same logic was used to avoid a Spain-Argentina clash too early.
Argentina’s Bracket Opens Up
With the new 48-team format, FIFA also added other seeded teams, including Germany and the three host countries. As a result, some major nations had theoretically trickier paths, balanced out by more affordable round-of-32 fixtures.
But this whole system only works if the favorites do their job. And that is where Argentina’s route opened up. Cape Verde surprised Uruguay, sparing Argentina a much hotter South American derby. Portugal, expected in that part of the bracket, also made life difficult for themselves in the group stage.
In the end, Argentina were not helped by a magical draw, but by a series of favorable results. The rules did their job; the others did much less. And as often happens, when Messi’s path becomes clearer, the conspiracy theories immediately come back out of the closet.
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