It’s crunch time for Argentina and Diego Maradona tonight as they travel to Montevideo to play Uruguay knowing that defeat could see them fail to reach the World Cup finals next summer.
In arguably their biggest game since they played Germany in the final of Italia ’90, Los Albicelestes travel across the continent to battle bitter rivals Uruguay in the famed ‘River Plate’ derby.
Thanks to veteran striker Martin Palermo’s late, late goal which defeated Peru 2-1 on Saturday, Maradona’s men currently sit in fourth place in the World Cup qualifying table.
Their qualification rivals Uruguay and Ecuador sit one and two points behind them respectively with the latter travelling to Santiago to battle already qualified Chile on the same night.
A victory or a point for Messi and co. will take them straight to South Africa, a defeat coupled with a win for Ecuador, and next summer’s World Cup will be shorn of Argentina for the first time since 1970.
Beleaguered coach Maradona, who celebrated Palermo’s injury time winner against Peru in Jurgen Klinsmann style fashion, is drawing upon all his resources to ensure safe passage. Even God has been consulted!
The bad news for Maradona and Argentina is that they have a poor record against arch rivals Uruguay, while they have an atrocious away record in qualifying so far having won only once on their travels.
Fresh from defeating Ecuador 2-1 and with the likes of Diego Forlan and Luis Suarez of Ajax in good form, Uruguay head into the match confident of securing the three points they need to guarantee their trip to their first World Cup since 2002.
If home form is a guide to this potentially historic clash then it would take a brave man to bet against Uruguay who have scored 19 goals in eight home matches.
If ever there was an indicator of the sheer magnitude of this gigantic encounter it is the fact that 70,000 home tickets were sold out within hours of going on sale.
So it will be all eyes on the Estadio Centenario, Montevideo tonight in a truly unmissable encounter.