See the match report on England's second World Cup 2002 game here.   

This is England's second World Cup match in the World Cup 2002 - England play Argentina at 12.30 pm (BST - British Summer Time) on Friday 7th June in Sapporo, Japan. Pierliugi Collina (Italian) will referee this game. Argentina have not lost to England for 22 years and they are one of the favourites to win the World Cup. Brief match highlights for England's most recent encounter with Argentina is shown at the bottom of this page.

After the match against Sweden, England could well make some changes for this game. Although Darius Vassell played well against Sweden, he is a very similar player to Michael Owen - Emile Heskey may play up front against Argentina as he is bigger and stronger and should be able to hold the ball up more. The England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson may strengthen the defence on the left wing by including Ashley Cole ahead of Wayne Bridge (as they are both left footed) but he is more likely to include Kieron Dyer on the left wing ahead of Ashley Cole. Nicky Butt may also come in to the side as a defensive midfielder as the expense of Owen Hargreaves.

Following on from England's 1-1 draw against Sweden, England cannot afford to lose the game against Argentina (or they would not be in control of their own destiny for qualification in the final game if Sweden get a draw or victory against Nigeria on 7 June).

Could the England team to face Argentina be:
 
                                                        David Seaman
                                                   
 
  Danny Mills                         Rio Ferdinand             Sol Campbell                   Ashley Cole
                                                                                                                       

  David Beckham                   Nicky Butt                  Paul Scholes                   Kieron Dyer
                                                                                      

                                             Emile Heskey             Michael Owen

Argentina came top of their World Cup South American qualification group by winning 13 games, drawing 4 and only losing one game (Brazil beat them 3-1 at home). Ecuador came second in this group, followed by Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, Columbia, Bolivia, Peru, Venezuela and Chile.

For the World Cup finals, Argentina wanted to retire the number 10 shirt in honour of their best ever player, Diego Maradona. FIFA however refused the request and the shirt will now be worn by Ariel Ortega.

Argentina also won away in Germany - they won 1-0 on 17 April 2002.
Argentina surprisingly only managed a 1-1 draw away to Wales on 13 February 2002.
 

                             
                             Batistuta celebrates his goal against Nigeria
 

In their first World Cup 2002 game, Argentina beat Nigeria 1-0 but had several more chances to win the game more comfortably. Argentina started the game with Batistuta up front but Crespo also has a good chance to start against England. Argentina now only need to beat England to qualify for the second round.

The full 23 man Argentinian squad submitted to FIFA on 21 May was:

Goalkeepers:  1. German Burgos (Athletico Madrid),  12. Pablo Cavallero (Celta),  23. Roberto Bonano (Barcelona)

Defenders:  22. Jose Chamot (AC Milan),  6. Walter Samuel (Roma), 4. Mauricio Pochettino (Paris St Germain), 13. Diego Placente (Bayer Leverkusen),  2. Roberto Ayala (Valencia)

Midfielders:  14. Diego Simeone (Lazio),  8. Javier Zanetti (Inter Milan),  20. Marcelo Gallardo (Monaco),  15. Claudio Husain (Napoli),  11. Juan Sebastian Veron (Man Utd),  5. Mattias Almeyda (Parma),  18. Kily Gonzales (Valencia), 16. Pablo Aimar (Valencia),  17. Gustavo Lopez (Celta),  3. Juan Pablo Sorin (Cruzeiro)

Attackers:  9. Gabriel Batistuta (Roma), 19. Hernan Crespo (Lazio),  10. Ariel Ortega (River Plate),  7. Claudio Lopez (Lazio),  21. Claudio Caniggia (Rangers)

The last time England played Argentina was in a friendly match at Wembley on 23 February 2000. England got a 0-0 draw which was memorable for Emile Heskey doing well in his first start for England.

The England team was Seaman, Campbell, Dyer (P Neville 59), Southgate, Keown (Ferdinand 46), Beckham (Parlour 72), Scholes, Wise, Wilcox,  Heskey (A Cole 79),  Shearer (Phillips 77)

The Argentinean line up was Cavellero, Ayala, Arruabarrena (Vivas 66), Sensini (Pochettino 36), Chamot, Simeone, Gonzalez, Zanetti, Vernon, Batistuta (Crespo 57), Ortega (B Lopez 90)

England started the stronger and the first real chance came after 20 minutes when Heskey crossed to Shearer from the left side of midfield - under heavy challenge from Ayala, Shearer put the chance wide. There were not many chances in this game but in the second half Argentina started to play better and Ortega had a couple of attempts. With ten minutes of the game left Crespo missed the best chance of the game for Argentina and the game ended 0-0.

The last time England played Argentina in a competitive match was in the World Cup 1998 when England lost on penalties in the second round (that match where David Beckham was sent off)

England also lost to Argentina in the quarter finals of the World Cup 1986 (when Maradona scored one goal with his hand and one great goal - Argentina won 2-1). The last time England beat Argentina in a World Cup match was in the World Cup 1966 when England won 1-0 and went on to win the tournament.

See the match report on England's second World Cup 2002 game here.