Argentina meet Switzerland again in World Cup quarters: Brazil 2014 agony | OneFootball

At the exact moment when Rubén Vargas converted the penalty that sealed Switzerland’s qualification against Colombia and confirmed that the Swiss side will be the next opponent of the Argentina National Team, digital platforms were flooded with clips recalling the match of July 1, 2014, in São Paulo. On that occasion, the Albiceleste secured a narrow 1-0 victory in extra time in the round of 16 thanks to a dramatic finish by Ángel Di María. Until some time ago, that clash ranked among the most dramatic and nerve-racking for national fans so far in the 21st century.

Later, the World Cup in Qatar took care of pushing aside those old ghosts with last-gasp finishes, although the recent matches against Cape Verde and Egypt in this tournament seem to carry on the heart-stopping pace of the last World Cup. The shared wish of the fans ahead of this Saturday’s match at 10:00 p.m. in Kansas City is to avoid the game reaching the same levels of anguish endured at the Arena do Corinthians or in the previous matches of this current edition.

During that sunny Tuesday noon at the brand-new stadium in São Paulo, unveiled just weeks before the start of the World Cup in Brazil, Argentina and Switzerland played out a perfectly even contest. Alejandro Sabella’s side had made it through the opening stage by taking all nine points available, even though each match required a high level of tension: a 2-1 win over Bosnia in the opener, a last-minute 1-0 victory against Iran through a moment of brilliance from Lionel Messi, and a tight 3-2 result against Nigeria. As for the Europeans, they reached the knockout stage after finishing behind France in a group also made up of Honduras and Ecuador.

The then head coach of the Argentina National Team sent out the following lineup at the start of the match: Sergio Romero; Pablo Zabaleta, Federico Fernández, Ezequiel Garay, Marcos Rojo; Javier Mascherano, Fernando Gago; Ezequiel Lavezzi, Lionel Messi, Ángel Di María and Gonzalo Higuaín.

For their part, the team coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld had a fearsome attacking combination on the right flank led by Stephan Lichtsteiner, a standout at Juventus in Italy, and Xherdan Shaqiri, who at that time was part of Bayern Munich. The Swiss squad also featured Granit Xhaka and Ricardo Rodríguez, two long-serving players who look set to be in the starting lineup this coming Saturday, more than a decade after that encounter.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.