Inter’s Lautaro Martinez has been dropped in favour of Atletico Madrid’s Julian Alvarez as reigning champions Argentina prepare to take on Egypt in the 2026 World Cup round of 16 on Tuesday evening.
The final round of 16 matches at the 2026 World Cup are taking place on Tuesday evening, beginning with Argentina vs. Egypt at 17.00 BST and ending with Switzerland vs. Colombia at 21.00 BST.
Argentina have their 100% win-record at the 2026 tournament intact, topping Group J with a maximum nine points before defeating Cape Verde 3-2 in injury-time in a modern-day classic in the round of 32.
Lionel Scaloni has made three changes to the team that eventually overcame Cape Verde last time out, most notably replacing Inter’s Martinez with Atletico’s Alvarez.
Thiago Almada and Facundo Medina have also come out of the starting line-up and have been replaced by Nicolas Tagliafico and Leandro Paredes. Como’s Nico Paz is also named among the Argentina substitutes.
Three of Egypt’s four 2026 World Cup matches have ended level after 90 minutes: They qualified in second place from Group G with five points and required penalties to get past Australia in the round of 32 last time out.
Mohamed Salah is the star name in the Egypt line-up in a squad that features no representatives from Serie A.
Argentina vs. Egypt: Confirmed line-ups
Argentina (4-1-3-2): E.Martinez; Molina, Romero, Lisandro Martinez, Tagliafico; Mac Allister; De Paul, E.Fernandez, Paredes; Alvarez, Messi.
Subs: Musso, Rulli, Senesi, Montiel, Otamendi, Medina, Barco, Lo Celso, Palacios, Gonzalez, Simeone, Paz, Lopez, Lautaro Martinez.
Egypt (4-2-3-1): Shoubir; Ibrahim, Rabia, Hafez, Hany; Attia, Lashin; Salah, Ashour, Zico; Hassan.
Subs: El-Shenawy, Soliman, M.Alaa, Abdelmaguid, T.Alaa, Fathy, Donga, Saber, Trezeguet, Abdelkarim, Adel, Marmous, Zizo.
Player statistic
| 15′ | Yasser Ibrahim
(Assist: Marwan Ateya)
|
|||
| Lionel Messi |  |
21′ |
| 67′ | Mostafa Ziko
(Assist: Haissem Hassan)
|
|||
| Cristian Romero
(Assist: Lionel Messi)
|
79′ | |||
| Lionel Messi
(Assist: Gonzalo Montiel)
|
84′ | |||
| Enzo Fernández
(Assist: Lautaro Martínez)
|
 |
90+2′ | ||
| 90+3′ | Oufa Shobeir | |||
| 90+4′ | Hamdy Fathy | |||
| 90+8′ | Marwan Ateya | |||
| 90+12′ |  |
Haissem Hassan |
Match statistic
Argentina
Egypt
Starting lineups
Substitutes
