Lionel Messi is looking for his first goal of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. (Getty Images)

Day 18, Match 2

Argentina vs. Mexico, Round of 16

Date and location

June 27, Soccer City Stadium, Johannesburg

Broadcast details

Live on CBC and CBCSports.ca (2 p.m. ET). Consult CBC's full broadcast schedule.

What's at stake

A spot in the quarter-finals in a match against Germany.

Player to watch for Argentina

Gonzalo Higuain — Argentina's hat trick hero against South Korea was given the day off in his country's final game of the first round against Greece. Higuain will be eager to get back into the swing of things and prove his three-goal performance was merely a sign of things to come.

Player to watch for Mexico

Guillermo Franco — The veteran striker provides the Mexicans with a touch of class and experience up front. Capable of outwitting the most intelligent defenders, Franco is a thinking-man's forward, and should give Argentina's questionable back line all it can handle.

Key matchup

Lionel Messi vs. Rafa Marquez — The two are FC Barcelona teammates, but that will be put aside when they take to the field in Johannesburg. Messi loves to be fed the ball out wide, and then cut in and take defenders on one-on-one. It'll be up to Marquez and his defensive cohorts to limit his space and close the Argentine wizard down quickly.

The Argentine perspective

"The group phase could not have gone better for us. We won all three of our matches and almost everyone got a game. That makes us all feel wanted and part of the team. But that's in the past now and we need to start thinking about what 's coming up." — Winger Jonas Gutierrez

The Mexican perspective

"Obviously you have to translate it onto the field, but I think we can make a valid argument to say we can win this game." — Midfielder Gerardo Torrado

World Cup head-to-head

These teams have met two times at previous World Cups, with Argentina prevailing both times.

The Argentines hammered the Mexicans 6-3 in the first round of the first World Cup, held in 1930 in Uruguay.

The other encounter, a second-round match four years ago in Germany, was much closer, with Argentina needing extra time to defeat Mexico 2-1.