What if: Argentina miss out on the 2018 World Cup

The walk of the defeated

After the recent defeats to Chile and Bolivia in the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers, Argentinian football is in a severe crisis. The national team are 5^th in the group table of the CONMEBOL 2018 World Cup Qualifiers and could well miss out on automatic qualification for football’s biggest tournament. 

The two shock losses forced the Argentine Football Association (AFA) to sack manager Edgardo Bauza earlier this week. With just four more games remaining, what will happen if the Argentinian team do not qualify for the 2018 World Cup in Russia? 

We list a few things that could happen in the aftermath of Argentina’s failure to qualify for the World Cup.

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#5 Diego Maradona will forever overshadow Lionel Messi

Maradona and Messi have been spoken about in the same breath, but only one has been successful on the international stage

 

The Ronaldo vs Messi debate will go on till pigs can fly, but the debate of the greatest Argentinian footballer is solely in the favour of Lionel Messi. 

The debate was seemingly put to bed by Diego Maradona himself – who is considered the closest competitor to Messi for the crown of ‘best Argentinian footballer of all-time’ – when he proclaimed that the Barcelona star was a much better player than him.

But in the eyes of many Albiceleste fans, Messi is still second best to Maradona thanks to the latter single-handedly winning the World Cup for Argentina. 

Messi might have won everything there is to be won in club football but has still not laid hands on the biggest prize of them all – the World Cup.