Peru and Argentina will continue their World Cup qualification campaigns when they face off at Estadio Nacional de Lima in the early hours of Wednesday morning (03:00).

The defending world champions are top of the table on nine points, while Peru have picked up just one point from three games so far.

Team News

Following their 2-0 loss against Chile last time out, Peru head coach Juan Reynoso could be tempted to make some changes to his lineup.

Anderson Santamaria, Marcos Lopez, Wilder Cartagena, Bryan Reyna and Andre Carrillo are hoping to get the nod here, while Andy Polo was substituted at half time in the loss against Chile, so he could drop to the bench.

As for Argentina, Lionel Messi was not in the starting XI against Paraguay on Friday, although he did come off the bench in the second half, and is expected to be handed a place in the lineup here.

Match Odds

Argentina are heavy favourites for this encounter and are priced at 3/10 to claim the victory, with the draw 10/3 and Peru are 8/1 to take the three points.

Lionel Messi is 21/20 to score anytime, and 3/1 to be first or last goalscorer.

The last meeting between the sides saw Argentina win 1-0 back in 2021, and a repeat of that scoreline is 4/1.

Argentina over 2.5 goals @ 2/1

Argentina have been in sensational form since their World Cup triumph, winning all seven of their matches after the dramatic victory on penalties over France in Qatar.

Seven of the last 10 encounters between Peru and Argentina have ended with less than four goals scored, however Lionel Scaloni’s side have netted 18 goals in their last seven encounters, and I’m backing them to find the back of the net on multiple occasions once again here, mainly because their outright price for the match is so short.

Argentina arguably have the best firepower in world football, spearheaded by none other than Lionel Messi but the likes of Julian Alvarez, Lautaro Martinez and Nicolas Gonzalez provide sufficient backup so they have plenty of options when it comes to goals.

Lionel Messi to score first @ 3/1

Realistically, I don’t think there needs to be any reasoning for backing Lionel Messi to score.

The Argentina captain has scored 32 goals and recorded 25 assists in 54 appearances in 2023, and is a decent price to add to his 104 international goals here.

The Inter Miami forward only played 37 minutes against Paraguay on Friday, and didn’t feature at all against Bolivia due to injury, but prior to that he scored six goals in four matches for his country since the finale in Qatar.

We know what this man is capable of and I wouldn’t be surprised if he opens the scoring against Peru.