TONIGHT at the famous Maracana stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil’s beach city, kickoff 9pm local time, Argentina faces Germany in the Fifa World Cup final for the third time. The first meeting in 1986 in Mexico, Diego Maradona led the South American team to glory and four years later, Lother Matheus and co. took their revenge at Italia 90 on a day when Argentina had two players sent off. So with the series tied at 1-1, the question that every football fan around the world is asking is who is going to take the day tonight and put their noses ahead in the head-to-head battle between the two old rivals. Germany will start as favourites, not least after their vintage performance in the semi-final that saw them tear the tournament hosts Brazil into pieces with 7-1 win, but Argentina are no mugs and they have Lionel Messi leading them from the front. Coming into the final as underdogs could be an advantage for Argentina, who will also have an extra motivation of wanting to send off their coach Alejandro Sabella on a high--he has confirmed he will be standing down after the world cup. The absence of Brazil in the final has surely taken away that excitement that you would expect ahead of such a huge game, but still fans here are looking forward to a thrilling encounter. For different reasons, Brazilians are divided on who to support as you would expect, with some backing Messi and co, but majority are ready to put their humiliation in the semi-final aside and get behind Germany. The Germans have endeared themselves to local fans here in Brazil, and Joachim Low’s team should expect to get backing of majority of the 60,000 in the Maracana stadium. However, thousands of Argentineans have made the short trip across the boarder to come and support their team, which despite not playing as well as their tonight’s opponents in this tournament, but has been clever in their approach, and not conceding too many goals.
