Even before a ball was booted in anger, football fans had a gut feeling this was going to be a good one.
Two international powerhouses battling it out for survival at Lusail Stadium, already buzzing with the knowledge that World Cup favourites Brazil had fallen to Croatia via that cruellest of tiebreaker decisions, the dreaded penalty shootout.
Argentina, the runners-up in 2014, desperately lunging towards their first World Cup victory since the infamous 1986 campaign, a victory claimed over West Germany but most remembered for Diego Maradona's 'Hand of God' two games earlier.
