Under an hour to go, the match is at 12 o’clock midday, local time – it’s cold and a wintry outside and people are walking briskly.

All the Argentinian tv channels are talking about one thing – except for a dubbed tele-evangelist show. The commentator on channel 13 relates the warming up and the empty stadium as if it’s the last few minutes of a particularly tense game. All the previous world cup winners are being interviewed, but after the last few tournaments, the public aren’t going to let their hopes get too high before the game gets underway.

The first few minutes look like they might be decisive. Gordon Strachan goes for Argentina in this article. This blog agrees.