The venue for the round of sixteen clash between Argentina and Switzerland will be the Arena de Sao Paulo where Argentina find themselves without Sergio Kun Aguero, ruled out with a thigh problem. However, they won’t be panicking too much, especially when Aguero’s direct replacement is Ezequiel Lavezzi. Alejandro Sabella’s side are the favourites for this particular match and he may  employ an extra midfielder and switch to a 4-4-2 to try and put the contest beyond any doubt. In the Switzerland camp, their replacement striker Mario Gavranovic, as he injured himself in training by tearing his anterior cruciate ligament, an injury which may see him miss the rest of the tournament. Xherdan Shaqiri is likely to be up front behind lone striker Josip Drmic, with Granit Xhaka being deployed out on the right wing.

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Argentina and Switzerland may continue the 2014 tournament’s tradition of deploying left footed players, a habit which so far has lead to some wonderful passages of play. Arjen Robben has been most notable of those lefties, swiftly followed by James Rodriguez. However, this evening the stage is set for Xherdan Shaqiri who has already bagged a left-footed hat-trick this tournament when his side beat Honduras to make it to the last sixteen. In doing so he made history, becoming the first ever player in any World Cup to score a left-footed hat-trick. With Shaqiri in such fine form, and trying to claim the vaunted record of the first player ever to score four goals in successive World Cup games, it’s hardly surprising that the Kosovan has been dubbed the “Messi of the Alps”. Indeed the Argentina Captain, dubbed by many as the “best player in the world” only has one more goal than Shaqiri in this tournament, with few pundits denying that he still has to hit top form, of course.

Should Paris St. Germain’s Ezequiel Lavezzi begin out on the wing, Argentina will reap the benefits of a more balanced attack. He was Sergio Aguero’s replacement on the wing against Nigeria and was much more effective, and definitely more engaged, being much more involved in passing moves than his colleague. In fact, the statistics for that match showed that Lavezzi took three times as many touches and made five times as many passes as Aguero. Switzerland are in confident form, and have shown that they are not afraid to make tactical changes after switching Shaqiri to a more threatening and offensive roaming role in the midfield, while nudging Granit Xhaka out to the wing. Using tactics such as these, the Swiss have defied odds that have been stacked against them in beating all South American opposition including Honduras and Ecuador. Clearly there are still lessons to be learnt in the Swiss camp though after their 5-2 battering at the hands of a rampant France. This may prove to be all the encouragement that the Albiceleste need to administer a humbling to the Swiss, however, as previously stated, the Swiss have been anything but pushovers when faced with South American opposition.