Preview: Argentina vs Mauritania - prediction, team news, lineups

In their first of two friendlies before the World Cup, Argentina will face Mauritania at La Bombonera in Buenos Aires on Friday.

The reigning world champions won their final fixture of 2025, 2-0 over Angola, while their upcoming African opponents lost their previous match 2-0 versus Kuwait.

Match preview

It will be one of the last opportunities for Argentine players to impress Lionel Scaloni before the World Cup in Canada, the United States and Mexico this summer.

Argentina are riding a three-match winning run into this contest, without a single goal conceded over that stretch.

They have not lost a game in the Argentine capital since Uruguay beat them 3-0 at La Bombonera in a 2023 World Cup qualifying encounter.

Last year, this side failed to win a single game after conceding the opening goal, though that happened only twice.

The last six matches they have played in March ended in a victory for Argentina, while they have not lost this month since a 3-1 defeat versus Venezuela in 2019.

Not since 2017 have we seen them suffer a defeat to an African squad, when Nigeria beat them 4-2 in a friendly played in Russia that year.

Friday will likely go down as the biggest and most highly anticipated one in the history of the Mauritanian national team.

The northwest African nation wound up fifth in their World Cup qualifying group this time around, scoring a mere four goals in those 10 outings.

Aritz Lopez Garai will hope to cause a colossal upset on Friday in what would be his first triumph as coach over a team outside of Africa.

Coming into this fixture, the Africans are winless in their last five international affairs, losing on two of those previous three occasions.

At the same time, they failed to score in four of their last five encounters of 2025, while netting only once over that stretch.

Under Garai, this team have a 100% record when drawing first blood, doing so just once in 2025, when they defeated Togo 2-0.

Argentina International Friendlies form:

Argentina form (all competitions):

Mauritania International Friendlies form:

Mauritania form (all competitions):

Team News

Due to injuries, Leonardo Balerdi and Gonzalo Montiel were left off the Argentine squad, while Julian Alvarez will seek his 50th cap for the national team.

Lionel Messi, their record goalscorer and cap holder, is four appearances shy of 200 as he and Lautaro Martinez were the only ones to net in their 2-0 win over Angola, though the latter is dealing with a calf injury.

Four Mauritania players called up for this window will be seeking their first international caps, including Djeidi Gassama of Rangers and Jordan Lefort, who plays in Ligue 1 for Angers.

Hacen can move into second place regarding all-time goals for the senior squad as the 30-year-old is currently tied with Ismael Diakite at nine.

Argentina possible starting lineup:

Martinez; Molina, Senesi, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Almada, Messi, Alvarez

Mauritania possible starting lineup:

Diop; Keita, Ba, Saleck, Abeid; Magassa, Fofana, Hacen; Koita, Diallo, Gassama

We say: Argentina 4-0 Mauritania

While this will be a game many Mauritania players will talk about for years to come, we believe they will have a sense of awe facing a team littered with talent, and that should enable the world champions to win comfortably.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.