Argentina vs. Spain odds, prediction, preview, picks, start time for World Cup final on Sunday

Lionel Messi and Argentina take on Lamine Yamal and Spain with the World Cup on the line on Sunday. Argentina came back to shock England to advance to their second straight final, while Spain dismantled a dynamic France to play for the Cup for the first time since they won in 2010. The game pits the 39-year-old Messi against the 19-year-old Yamal, both products of the famed Barcelona academy. Will the elder statesman or the young phenom prevail? Kickoff in East Rutherford, N.J. is set for 3 p.m. ET.

Spain are -152 favorites to lift the Cup in the latest Argentina vs. Spain odds from FanDuel while Argentina are +132. The Over/Under for total goals scored in regulation time is 2.5. There are plenty of other soccer betting options at FanDuel, where you can use the latest FanDuel promo code to get $1,000 in bet reset tokens. 

You can get even more Argentina vs. Spain picks and more World Cup bets from SportsLine’s experts like Brad Thomas, Jon Eimer, Martin Green, Matt Severance and Brandt Sutton. Anyone following their World Cup betting advice at sportsbooks and on betting apps could have seen huge returns

Argentina vs. Spain odds

Argentina vs. Spain betting preview

Inevitability can take many forms in soccer. Take Argentina, for instance. Messi’s team refuses to die. The Argentines have secured late winner after late winner in the knockouts, punishing teams for letting up off the gas or giving the GOAT even an inch of wiggle room. You have to kill Argentina twice, and so far none of their opponents have been able to do it

Then there’s Spain. Their brand of inevitability is less dramatic. You simply won’t have fun when you play against Spain. Any concerns that the Spain hadn’t been properly tested were put to bed by their 2-0 suffocation of Kylian Mbappe and France. The dynamic French attack looked utterly baffled by the Spanish midfield and defense. Spain haven’t gotten much from wunderkind Lamine Yamal, but it really hasn’t mattered. Spain don’t necessarily want to beat the opposition to death with goals — they want to suck the life out of the game and chip away at both the clock and the their opponents’ willpower. We saw just how effective that game plan can be against a team like France, who win by throwing their elite forwards at the goal. 

Will it work against Argentina? Despite the presence of the greatest offensive threat in the game’s history, Argentina don’t exactly play full-throttle soccer. Players like Enzo Fernandez, Alexis Mac Allister an Rodrigo De Paul are deployed to control the midfield and set up something like a half-court offense (to steal a basketball term) for Messi. England lost on Wednesday because they were happy to let Argentina run that play for nearly 40 minutes with little resistance. It’s part of why Argentina has scored so many late goals — with their backs to the wall, they can compress the opposition and let Messi cook. 

Spain coach Luis de la Fuente won’t make the same fatal mistake as Thomas Tuchel. The best way to prevent Messi from cooking is to deprive him of the ball, and Spain are capable of doing just that. Just look at the win over France: Spain didn’t sit back and park the bus after scoring their goal. They went for a second. Argentina overturned a two-goal deficit against Egypt, of course, but Spain are a far superior side. 

The Argentine midfield is strong, but Spain’s may be even better. This is a game that may be decided in the middle of the pitch and could be a chess match until one team has to throw everything at the wall late. Given how brilliantly Spain dismantled France, it’s hard to bet against them in that sort of scenario. 

But that’s just how Messi seems to like it, isn’t it? 

In the end, Spain’s sheer quality should win out. Look for this match to be tight right until the end. It’s the sort of game that will be decided by an untimely mistake or a moment of brilliance. That’s the kind of game Spain has won for this entire tournament. The past should give way to the future and Messi should relinquish the Cup to Yamal

Argentina vs. Spain picks, prediction

Spain to win in regulation (+125)

As an Argentina fan, I’m pretty happy with how picking against my team went last time. I’ll do it again now but I expect the pick to actually work out this time. England simply looked like the better team until Tuchel made his disastrous tactical shift. Spain won’t make the same mistake of letting Messi have as much of the ball as he wants

Lionel Messi to score or assist (-130)

Spain is fully capable of getting a clean sheet here. If they can shut out France, they can shut out Argentina. But Messi has the magic in him to create at least one goal on Sunday. He assisted on both of the Argentine goals in his incredible second half against England and should find a way to make something happen against Spain, even if Argentina ends up losing

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