Ahead of this Friday’s draw for the final competition of the Qatar 2022 World Cup, a glaring omission will be the Argentina – Nigeria clash at the group stage. The fixture of both teams have been like a recurring decimal in five of the past seven editions of the World Cup.
It is one of the most recurring fixtures of the World Cup and is only surpassed by the seven clashes of Argentina v. Germany and Serbia v. Germany.
Other fixtures that have recurred five times are Argentina v. The Netherlands, Brazil v. Mexico, Brazil v. Serbia and England v. Germany.
The Nigeria and Argentina clash have taken place in past three editions of 2010, 2014 and 2018. These are in addition to those of USA ‘94 and Korea-Japan 2002.
In all the clashes, victory with just the odd goal, had gone to Argentina. But the absence of Nigeria at this edition means that the fixture with Argentina has been averted.
But Argentina may still draw one of the five African teams. With the exception of France ‘98, Argentina had always drawn an African team. At Italia ‘90, the South Americans met Cameroon. At the editions of 1994, 2002, 2010, 2014 and 2018, they faced Nigeria. At Germany 2006, they defeated Cote d’Ivoire 2-1.
