Top will face bottom in CONMEBOL World Cup qualifying on Thursday night, when world champions Argentina travel to Santiago to face an out-of-sorts Chile.
Lionel Scaloni's men secured their spot at the finals in March, but for hosts Chile, it looks like it will be a third successive failure to reach the World Cup.
Match preview
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In a campaign to forget, Chile look a shadow of the side that were among one of the world's best a decade ago, reaching back-to-back World Cups, and winning back-to-back Copa Americas.
Ricardo Gareca's men have improved from the farcical home defeat to Bolivia late last year, losing just one of their last four qualifiers, but they need a minor miracle to have any chance of reaching the finals.
Two wins from their 14 qualifiers so far leave Chile bottom of the standings, and five points adrift of Venezuela in the playoff place, and while that is not an insurmountable task, their fixtures do appear tough.
The nations battling for seventh are also in poor form, but Gareca's men must face Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil, as well as making the unenviable trip to El Alto to play Bolivia.
A blunt attack is what has cost Chile across qualifying, because they are still yet to reach double figures for goals after 14 games, and they have drawn a blank in nine of those matches.
Recent form against Argentina offers little to get excited about ahead of this one for the hosts either, because since beating the Albiceleste in the Copa America final in 2016, they are winless in eight head-to-heads, scoring just four goals.
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Argentina may be in an experimental mood though, after sealing their qualification thanks to a 4-1 drubbing of Brazil back in March.
Scaloni's men are far and away the strongest team in South America, pulling away at the top of the section, now sitting eight points clear of second place following three successive wins.
Travelling away in CONMEBOL qualifying is often a thankless task for most nations, but Argentina have been excellent, taking a very impressive 13 points from a possible 21, and another win here will give them one of the best away tallies under the current format in its history.
One of those eye-catching away performance came back in March, when Argentina won 1-0 away to Uruguay, illustrating the gulf in class between them and the rest on the continent, and they can prove how strong they are in some of their remaining qualifiers, which appear challenging on paper, such as a home tie with Colombia, and a trip to Ecuador.
Team News
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Chile will be without defender Paulo Diaz and midfielder Luciano Cabral for their two fixtures this week, after the duo pulled out of the squad ahead of meeting up due to injury.
There is also no place for the experienced Eduardo Vargas, but captain Alexis Sanchez is in the squad, despite very limited game time at Udinese all season, which saw him make just a handful of starts with the Bianconeri.
Sanchez's former Barcelona team mate Lionel Messi is back in the Argentina squad after he missed the March internationals with injury, and the all-time record appearance holder and goalscorer is set for cap number 192 here.
Alexis Mac Allister, Paulo Dybala and Lisandro Martinez are among the most notable names missing from the squad due to injury, but Lautaro Martinez has been named despite his injury worries late in the campaign with Inter Milan.
There are four uncapped players in the squad including Enzo Barrenechea, who has had a fine season on loan at Valencia, and many will be keeping an eye on 17-year-old Franco Mastantuono, who could be the next big thing out of Argentinian football.
Chile possible starting lineup:
Cortes; Loyola, Maripan, Sierralta, Suazo; Vidal, Echeverria, Pizarro; Osorio, Sanchez, Valdes
Argentina possible starting lineup:
E. Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Enzo, Paredes; Messi, La. Martinez, Alvarez
We say: Chile 0-2 Argentina
It has been a dismal campaign from start to finish for Chile, and barring multiple surprising results, they are on course to finish bottom of the section for the first time in its current format.
Argentina can play freely and without pressure after booking their spot at the finals in March, and they are levels above this current Chile side, and should have little problem in taking three points back to Buenos Aires ahead of next week's clash with Colombia.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Andrew Delaney
