Argentina World Cup 2018 squad and team guide

Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi is Argentina's talisman Credit: afp

Here we take a look at Argentina's World Cup squad and the other things it will be handy to know.

Argentina's World Cup squad - the 23 names

Sergio Romero, Willy Caballero, Franco Armania, Gabriel Mercardo, Cristian Ansaldi, Nicolas Otamendi, Federico Fazio, Marcos Rojo, Nicolas Tagliafico, Marcos Acuna, Javier Mascherano, Eduardo Salvio, Lucas Biglia, Giovani Lo Celso, Ever Banega, Manuel Lanzini, Maximiliano Meza, Angel Di Maria, Cristian Pavon, Lionel Messi, Paulo Dybala, Gonzalo Higuain, Sergio Aguero.

Argentina's World Cup 2018 fixtures

  • Iceland: Saturday, June 16 at 2pm
  • Croatia: Thursday, June 21 at 7pm
  • Nigeria: Tuesday, June 26 at 7pm

What odds are Argentina to win the World Cup?

9/1

What do you think Argentina's starting XI should be?

Pick your team here:

The kits

See where Argentina's shirts ends up in our ranking of all 64 World Cup shirts below:

Who's the coach?

Jorge Sampaoli, whose job is to help Messi deal with the pressure. Has said: "Messi has a revolver put to his head called the World Cup."

Who's the star?

If you need help with this question, perhaps football is not for you.

Best thing about them

Besides Messi, a potent strike force of Sergio Aguero, Gonzalo Higuian and Paulo Dybala.

Worst thing about them

A general sense of chaos. Unsettled preparation (including a 6-1 friendly defeat to Spain), line-up not certain, so-so in qualifying.

You may recognise...

The coaching stylings of Pep Guardiola in the way his former (Javier Mascherano) and current (Nicolas Otamendi) centre-halves play out from the back.

Cameramen will be picking out...

Diego Maradona going bananas in the posh seats if they score / if they fail to score / for no particular reason.

Fans' favourite chant

"Vamos, vamos Argentina" 

Translation: "Give it to Messi you idiots."

On-field prediction

Easy group and possible path. Messi fires, they win it.

Off-field prediction

Must save dignity of embattled, hurting nation. No pressure, then.