It is the second day of the round of sixteen and if we can come close to the drama and excitement of yesterday, we will be doing well. I’m heading to the stadium to watch Argentina and Poland in twenty minutes and if I pick up any additional information I will be sure to pass it on.

The last time I watched Argentina live was the 1996 Olympic Final in Athens, Georgia. Nigeria won 3-2 in what was a classic encounter. The Argentina squad in 1996 contained the likes of Hernan Crespo, Claudio Lopez, Robert Ayala, Javier Zanneti and David Beckham’s (the obligatory mention this week) pal Diego Simeone.

Atleti_female - over to you on Argentina's chances. Any Polish fans that would like to contribute - feel free.

FIFA. Com has previews for Chile vs. Portugal, Zambia vs. Nigeria, Argentina vs. Poland and Mexico vs. Congo. I went 1 out of 4 on predictions yesterday (thank you USA) so another display like that I am going to have our cats Baggio and Shevchenko make the quarter final picks.

A few things to chew over after another weekend of interesting performances and results around Europe. 

This week Arsene Wenger will complete ten years in charge at Arsenal. Considering Wenger arrived to headlines of “Arsene who” and scurrilous gossip you would have to say he has not done to badly. As far as Arsenal fans are concerned, I would have to reckon that only the great Herbert Chapman would be considered along side Wenger. Chapman died prematurely while in charge at Highbury and never lived to see the full fruits of his labour.

However, what about the great managers who have been in charge of English clubs over the last 40 years or so?  How will history rate Arsene Wenger against the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson, Brian Clough, Bob Paisley, Sir Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Don Revie, Ron Greenwood and Bill Nicholson?

Taking trophies into consideration is one way to look at it but the transformation that Wenger brought to Arsenal in terms of the quality of the football has also to be considered I would think. Has their been a more entertaining side than Arsenal in recent memory?

Ronaldo turned 30 (he is younger than Ruud van Nistelrooy) last Friday  and he should have at least another two or three seasons of goal scoring left in him. Should he just retire or should Fabio Capello find a place for him in the Real Madrid starting line-up? Alternatively, come January should he be looking for a change of scenery and if so where should that be?

Hernan Crespo seems to be settling in at Inter Milan. With three goals in two games over 5 days, Crespo seems to be one of the few consistent things about Inter. They sit top of Serie A but they do seem to enjoy making things difficult. Three goals down to Roma in the Italian Super Cup they then scored four to win in extra time. In the first Serie A game of the season, they led Fiorentina 3-0 before holding on for a 3-2 win then this past weekend they went one-step better. This time Inter led struggling Chievo by four before allowing the Verona side to score three times in the last 13 minutes to set up a storming finish.

It is early days in Spain but La Liga does appear to have to makings o####reat title race this season. Real Madrid took advantage of Barcelona and Valencia drawing at the Nou Camp while Atletico Madrid brought Sevilla’s great start to a grinding halt. Two goals in the last five minutes turned a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win for Madrid’s other side. Of course Sevilla will point out that they played a quarter of the game after having both Escude (46th minute) and Navarro (66th minute) sent off.

Next weekend Atletico travel to the Bernabeu for the Madrid derby. Atletico and Fernando Torres have horrible records against Real since Atletico returned to the top flight in the 2002/03 season.

Up in Scotland Celtic drew first blood as they increased their lead to seven points over Rangers. It looks as if a quick turnaround in fortune under Paul LeGuen is not going to happen. Do Rangers have any other option other than being patient and staying the course with LeGuen?

Finally, is there any club that has undergone a crazier September than Gretna? Gretna started the month at the top of the Scottish First Division but were soudly spanked 4-0 by Dundee at home before losing 3-2 to Ross County in the Scottish League Challenge Cup.

A mid-month top of the table clash with Livingstone ended in a 1-1 draw while last Wednesday Hibernian thrashed Gretna 6-0 in the CIS Cup. Saturday brought about a turn in fortune when they beat Partick Thistle by the same score and Gretna returned to the top of the Scottish League.

For seventy minutes Argentina played the perfect away game. It looked as if Argentina lost their shape after the Riquleme substitution. They started to defend deeper and Klose's goal was a great piece of opportunism. He anticipated Borowski's flick on perfectly and Franco had no chance whatsoever.

Cruz is on for Crespo and although he lacks Crespo's mobility he is better in the air and harder to knock off the ball.

This one has a penalty kick look about it. The betting column in the Times says that penalty kicks actually favour the away team.

Both countries are 3-0 in WC penalty deciders. Germany has scored 13 of 14 and Argentina 11 of 14 penalties.

The mouth waters at the thought of this one. Things I will be looking for.

Crespo's movement against the German central defenders.

The effect Tevez has on the game when he drops back into midfield.

Ballack and Riquelme - head to head - neither player has scored and surely something has to give.

Sorin against Bernd Schneider.

Klose and Podolski vs. Heinze and Ayala

Lubas Michael is in charge so expect a tightly run game with little tolerance for any nonsense.

I will be over the match tracker but will return for half time thoughts.

Enjoy.

This is a game.

Mexico came out flying and can consider themselves unlucky not to be leading. It took Argentina six minutes to get into the Mexican half and they scored. It was a bad mistake by Borgetti as he got caught on wrong side of Crespo.

Riquelme is very quite. Mexican defense is compact and making it very difficult for Argentina to create space. As the game moves into the last twenty minutes it might be more difficult to keep it that tight.

Morales is doing a great job of stretching the Argentine back four. Heinze’s blunder nearly cost Argentina right on half-time.

Pardo off for Torrado. Pardo is so important to the Mexican set-up that it will be interesting to see how it affects the Mexican performance in the second half.

I wonder if we will see a change or two from Peckerman - Tevez is the obvious choice.

I hope I don’t hex him but I think the referee Busacca is having a good game. He got it right giving Heinze a yellow card as Scaloni was in line with Heinze and could have got across.

Well this one turned out to be a big disappointment. It sounds as if the IC vs. S&M would have been a better choice.

I'm not sure what we learned from this game. Both defenses were almost water-tight with both attacks being largely restricted to efforts from long-range.

I would say that Van der Saar was the busier keeper and Argentina did have the shot that came back off the post in the first half. However, the Dutch finished more strongly.

It looked like Argentina missed the intelligent running of Crespo and Saviola in attack.

The Dutch and Portugal seems to be a well matched pair while Argentina will surely have to much for Mexico.

S&M just cannot keep up with Argentina. They are chasing - and from time to time trying to kick - shadows.

Kezman gets sent off for a lunge at Mascherano - that came after he had a wee kick just a minute before at Riquelme after the ball had gone. He got away with the first one - but not the second.

Is Kezman really a superstar?

A flick from Riquelme puts Crespo through - a clear penalty there - but the referee waves it off.

And for S&M it just gets worse with Messi on and Maxi off.

Maxi scores his second one and Argentina is putting on a clinic. S&M can't handle Argentina's movement, passing or anything else.

The Group of Death? Well it looks that way for Serbia and Montenegro.

It looks as if the S&M defenders have been made to play in ski boots compared to Argentina who are floating.

The movement of Saviola and Crespo is so good.

But so is just about everything from Argentina just now.

Half time.

He was replaced by Gonzalez, suppossedly in order to give Argentina more attacking punch. Gonzalez off injured, Cambiasso on.

Cambiasso then proceeds to score a magnificent goal after playing a one-two with Crespo that finishes a wonderful move. A back heel from Crespo only adds to the goal - a thing of beauty.

I'm a big fan of Cambiasso - he was excellent for Inter this season. He works his butt off every game and he has skill to go with it.

Crespo has one dosallowed for an offside that wasn't offside. Crespo's movement up front is causing S&M big problems.

The half time whistle goes and the Ivory Coast is wondering how they are 2-0 down. One word - Riquelme. He set up the first with a free kick that was not dissimilar to Beckham's effort earlier in the day. The second wass a delightful pass to Saviola who timed his run perfectly after Crespo created space for the pass.

The Ivorians will be wondering about their positioning on the first free kick while there wasn't any pressure put on Riquelme when he had time to thread the needle on Saviola's goal.

 The Argentine defense has looked uncomfortable for most of the half with the Ivory Coast's power and speed but they their goal has survived intact.

If Argentine get the next goal then it is all over - it might be already - but if the Africans can get one back then who knows what might be in store.