Argentina World Cup 2026: Reigning champions have high expectations

Argentina will look to become the first nation in 64 years – and just the third country - to win back-to-back World Cups, after their triumph in Qatar back in 2022.

Lionel Scaloni’s men are amongst the favourites to go all the way this summer in North America, and below you can find my Argentina World Cup 2026 Odds.

Goalkeepers: Juan Musso (Atletico Madrid), Geronimo Rulli (Marseille), Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)

Defenders: Leonardo Balerdi (Marseille), Nicolas Tagliafico (Lyon), Gonzalo Montiel (River Plate), Lisandro Martinez (Manchester United), Cristian Romero (Tottenham), Nicolas Otamendi (Benfica), Facundo Medina (Marseille), Nahuel Molina (Atletico Madrid)

Midfielders: Leandro Paredes (River Plate), Rodrigo de Paul (Inter Miami), Valentin Barco (Strasbourg), Giovani lo Celso (Real Betis), Ezequiel Palacios (Bayer Leverkusen), Alexis Mac Allister (Liverpool), Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)

Forwards: Julian Alvarez (Atletico Madrid), Lionel Messi (Inter Miami), Nicolas Gonzalez (Atletico Madrid), Thiago Almada (Atletico Madrid), Giuliano Simeone (Atletico Madrid), Nico Paz (Como), Jose Manuel Lopez (Palmeiras), Lautaro Martinez (Inter Milan)

Argentina won 12 of their 18 qualifiers and were the only South American nation to collect double-digit wins. As well as that, they also finished top of the CONMEBOL standings without really breaking a sweat, finishing with the most goals, and second-most clean sheets.

They find themselves in Group J this summer alongside Austria, Algeria and Jordan. The former two could present potential banana skins, but World Cup debutants Jordan will find it difficult to contain all three opposing attacks, I imagine.

On paper, I’d expect them to top this group with relative ease, although they’ve shown in the past that they’re susceptible to a shock defeat in the group stage, evidenced by the 2-1 defeat to Saudi Arabia four years ago.

At the time of writing, Argentina are 1/3 to top Group J, and EVENS to make it to the quarter-final stage. If you fancy Messi and Co. to make it to the final four, that can be backed at 2/1, and it’s 4/1 for the defending champs to reach the final.

I think 8/1 for Argentina to win the tournament is a cracking outside bet.

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In terms of recent results, one's eye is immediately drawn to the 2-1 win over Mauritania - a match that should have been a whitewash but the Argentinians scraped through, and even lost the second half 1-0. A result that caused uproar in stands, as well as the dressing room.

Scaloni's men then responded with a 5-0 thrashing of Zambia to boost the confidence amongst camp, but there was evidently still work to do ahead of this summer's tournament.

Argentina were scheduled to play Spain back in the 2026 Finalissima - the winners of the Euros against the winners of the Copa America - back in March in Qatar, but the ongoing conflict in the country resulted in the game being postponed. It seems unlikely now that it'll to be played before the World Cup, but perhaps that would have been better preparation for Scaloni's side.

Group J Fixtures:

17 June 8pm local (18 June 2am BST) - vs Algeria (Kansas City)

22 June 12pm local (6pm BST) - vs Austria (Dallas)

28 June 9pm local (29 June 3am BST) - vs Jordan (Dallas)

Player to watch: Lionel Messi

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner hardly needs an introduction, but he remains the heartbeat of this Argentina team, despite his age.

The 38-year-old now plies his trade in MLS for Inter Miami, and he helped guide them to their first MLS Cup in December.

This will almost certainly be his final appearance on the world stage, and the same can be said for his long-time rival Cristiano Ronaldo. How fitting would it be to see a Portugal vs Argentina final? One last dance for the great rivals…

Unfortunately, I don’t see that happening.

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Prediction: Semi-finals

As mentioned above, despite potentially tricky matches against Austria and Algeria, Argentina should top this group – and anything less would be deemed a catastrophic failure.

In fact, I do think Argentina will go far, and it’s easy to get romantic about a potential fairytale ending for Messi, but the likes of France and Spain look more balanced in terms of their line-ups.