Argentina did not have to play against any of the top 15 teams in the rankings

Argentina is the current World Cup champion. Lionel Messi is also the hot favorite of the tournament. But despite reaching the quarter-finals of this World Cup, Argentina has not yet faced a strong opponent.

Not only that, the current world champions of the World Cup have not even had to face a team in the top 15 of the FIFA rankings. And that possibility has now given rise to a new controversy in the football world.

Argentina's opponents in the group stage were Algeria (ranking 33), Austria (23) and Jordan (63). Then, Lionel Scaloni's team defeated Cape Verde (69) in the round of 32 and Egypt (32) in the last sixteen to make it to the quarter-finals.

Argentina's opponent in the quarter-finals is Switzerland, currently in 19th position in the FIFA rankings. On the other hand, if Norway eliminates England in the equation to reach the semi-finals, then Argentina will get Norway, which is ranked 30th, in the last four.

As soon as these statistics were made public, a heated discussion started on social media. Some say that this is just a normal equation of a draw and a knockout stage. Many others are asking, is Argentina reaching the final door by taking one of the easiest paths in recent years?

However, the reality of football also says otherwise. No matter how low the ranking is, no opponent is easy in the knockout stage. The biggest proof of this is Argentina's match against Egypt in the last sixteen. Once the current champions were 2-0 behind. They had to win 3-2 in an incredible last-minute comeback to reach the quarter-finals.

Statistics also show that so far, the average FIFA ranking of Argentina's five opponents is about 44. Their strongest opponent was Austria, which was ranked 23rd. That means no team from the top 20 has come up against them on the way to the finals so far.