Argentina vs Switzerland Prediction: Xhaka’s a cracker to frustrate champs

The fourth quarter-final at the 2026 World Cup pits the reigning champions Argentina against Switzerland in an intriguing showdown at Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City. (8pm local, 2am BST, ITV1).

Argentina, South America's last men standing, have made hard work of pipping African sides Cape Verde and Egypt to reach the last eight, while the Swiss needed penalties to eliminate Colombia on Tuesday.

Steve Davies provides his Argentina vs Switzerland predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

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Team News

Facundo Medina has recovered from injury and may well return at left-back instead of Nicolas Tagliafico.

Head coach Lionel Scaloni has to decide which of Julian Alvarez or Lautaro Martinez to pair with Lionel Messi in attack.

The big headache for the Swiss is the fitness of three-goal top scorer Johan Manzambi, a superstar at these finals but now doubtful with a knee injury which forced him to miss the Colombia game.

World Cup Odds

Argentina vs Switzerland Odds

Argentina's perceived favourable treatment at this tournament is not quite reflected in match prices, which have the champions at 8/11 and Switzerland at 9/2, so solid favourites but hardly unbackable.

Record scorer Lionel Messi is 5/6 to find the net for a ninth time at these finals and 9/4 to do so first.

The Swiss are 10/1 to win on penalties, just as they did against Colombia in the last 16.

Double Chance - Draw or Switzerland @ 21/20

Unbeaten pair Argentina and Switzerland haven't done an awful lot wrong at this World Cup - but they haven't exactly set the tournament alight, either.

Argentina eased through Group J with three straight wins before finding both Cape Verde and Egypt hard to beat in the knockouts.

Switzerland, after being held by Qatar in their opener, have improved, although they looked fairly witless in their 0-0 draw against Colombia last time out, missing the speed and impact of Manzambi.

These are two teams who will look to be organised with Argentina offering more in attack.

But as Colombia discovered, Granit Xhaka is granite tough and so are his team-mates and they are more than capable of holding Argentina up.

The Swiss are giving up fewer than 10 shots per game at this tournament - Argentina even less than that - so this could easily turn into a drawn-out, frustrating affair where the lay of the champs over 90 minutes could be the way to go.

Over 3.5 Switzerland Corners @ 11/10

Switzerland kicked off the tournament on a mission to collect corners, with 10 in their 1-1 draw against Qatar and seven in the 4-1 win over Bosnia.

Since then they have dried up a little, but they did manage to win four in their 2-0 success over Algeria.

There is every likelihood they could have to chase the game here at some point, and they have enough players prepared to shoot from range to collect deflections and saves.

To that end, their corner count is well worth getting the high side of at 3.5.