Chile v Argentina Betting Tips [27 January 2022]

Lionel Messi will be unavailable for Argentina as the South American champions travel to Santiago to take on Chile in the 15th round of matches in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. Chile go into this game with 16 points, in sixth place while Argentina are second on 29 points on the 10-team table. Chile are a point below fourth and fifth place and they need three points here to put themselves in a good place as far as qualification is concerned. This isn’t an opponent they’ve done well against in their recent meetings. Chile’s only wins over Argentina in the last 11 meetings have come courtesy of post match penalties with they have suffered six losses in that period. They will hope to build on their last two matches, a friendly game against Mexico that ended 2-2 and q 1-0 win over El Salvador. Their last game ended in a 2-0 loss at home to Ecuador, ending a run of three straight wins in the World Cup qualifiers. An aging squad has taken the fair share of the blame for Chile’s troubles but they also have a few exciting youngsters, including Blackburn Rovers’ Ben Brereton.

Argentina can afford to leave out their top stars for this game, having already secured their spot at Qatar 2022. In their last outing they drew 0-0 with Brazil and despite playing lesser games than Chile, they have more wins. In 13 matches in the qualifiers, they have eight wins, four more than Chile. Going into this game, Argentina are unbeaten in 27 matches, a run that started with a win against Chile in 2019 in the third place playoff of the Copa America. In that game, Lionel Messi and Gary Medel were sent off. They have 17 wins in that run of 27 matches, and in World Cup qualification, Argentina go to this game unbeaten in the last 17, having last lost to Bolivia in 2017, in the qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. Ahead of this game, Argentina have been superb in defence and have not conceded a goal in the last six matches.

Argentina have a great run ahead of this game and though they miss a few key men, notably Lionel Messi and Joaquin Correa, they will still have a strong team out there. Chile have struggled against Argentina in recent meetings and an aging squad isn’t helping much. They have also not done so well in recent matches, and we will back Argentina to win here.