The Netherlands vs Argentina Prediction - Will Argentina Be Able To Stop Van Gaal's Clockwork Orange?

Next Wednesday, The Netherlands will take on the former World Champions Argentina at Arena Corinthians in the overwhelming city of São Paulo for the second Semi-Finals match of the tournament.

Argentina didn’t have to be at their best to defeat Belgium last Saturday. Although they only won the match by 1-0, La Albiceleste controlled every aspect of the game at their own will and walked with ease to the next stage of the competition. The Napoli centre forward, Gonzalo Higuain, netted in the team’s lonely goal early in the match and that proved to enough to dispatch an unrecognizable Belgian side, which seemed to have spent all their energy on the match against the US team.

Despite their win, Argentina’s game was once again far from being attractive. The team looked somehow lost during certain periods of the match and only the glimpses of geniality of Leo Messi were able to break monotony down.

Alejandro Sabella’s promoted some changes in his team on the match against Belgium by bringing in Basanta to left side of the defence and by replacing Gago for Biglia at the centre of pitch. Although his changes gave the team more defensive consistency, he will be forced to implement some further changes for the match against Holland since he will certainly not able to count on the contribution of Real Madrid’s midfielder Di Maria, who suffered an injury against Belgium.

As for the Netherlands, the match against La Albiceleste will probably be their major test in the tournament so far. Although they were clearly favourites to win their last match against Costa Rica, Holland only managed to “get rid of” Los Ticos on the penalty shootout after a goalless draw during the 120 minutes of the match. The Dutch side had more goal chances during the match but the Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas managed to frustrate the clockwork orange boys’ intents. Before the end of the extra-time, Van Gaal decided to bring in Newcastle’s goalkeeper Tim Krul for the place of Cillessen, and although his option might look strange, it proved to be decisive, since Krul stopped to penalty shots from the Costa Rican players.

Although Holland maintained their fantastic winning streak, they seem to be somehow less effective now than they were during the group stage. The Dutch side had a share deal of luck when they defeated Mexico on the Round of 16 stage and yet they weren’t able to defeat Costa Rica during the 120’ minutes of the Quarter-finals’ match. Van Gaal has probably came to the same conclusion out and he might implement some changes for the match against Argentina next Wednesday.

Although it is hard to pick a team to be favourites in this type of matches, Holland might enjoy from slight favouritism since they look a bit more consistent and they appeared less fatigued than the Argentinians lately.

The Netherlands

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

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Argentina

Stats: W-5 L-0 D-0

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Possible Line-ups

The Netherlands (3-5-2) - Cillessen - Janmaat - Vlaar -  De Vrij - Blind - Wijnaldum -  Memphis - Kuyt - Sneijder - Robben - Van Persie

Argentina (4-3-3) - Romero - Zabaleta - Demichelis - Garay - Rojo - Gago - Mascherano - Biglia - Messi - Lavezzi - Higuaín

Prediction: The Netherlands 1 Argentina 0