Diego Maradona’s team are on a collision course to face Germany in the quarter finals – although they have to beat tricky last sixteen opponents out for revenge first!

There’s a potentially thrilling encounter taking place at Soccer City tonight, with Mexico looking to avenge defeat by the same opponents at the same stage in the 2006 World Cup.

It was a Saturday evening in Leipzig where El Tri were eliminated in extra-time by Argentina and there are several members of the current squad who were on the losing side that day. Javier Aguirre’s team are 6/1 (bet365) to gain revenge by winning in ninety minutes, or alternatively you can back them at 7/2 (bet365) to qualify from the tie.

The match could be a good deal closer than the odds suggest, especially as Diego Maradona’s team had a nice easy group which featured three modest teams for them to beat. It was only against South Korea that La Albiceleste looked really impressive, although they will be popular at Paddy Power’s 4/7 to win in normal time.

After all, they had the luxury of resting several key players for the final Group B match against Greece and we should see Javier Mascherano and Angel Di Maria return to the midfield. There will also be two hot strikers nicely rested and keen to test out a fragile Mexican defence, with Gonzalo Higuain and Carlos Tevez available at 4/1 (bet365) and 11/2 (Blue Square) respectively to score the first goal.

Higuain could be the best bet as Tevez tends to drift deeper and wider to collect the ball, not to mention the tracking back that he does on behalf of the team. Maradona chose not to rest Messi for the Greece match in the obvious hope that his makeshift captain would score, although the Barcelona star has yet to break his duck. Perhaps he’ll get on the scoresheet in Johannesburg, with Paddy Power pricing him at even money on their Anytime Scorer market.

Mexico also have some exciting attacking players and it will be interesting to see whether Javier Hernandez (10/1 bet365) gets to make his first start on Sunday. The Manchester United-bound striker came on a substitute in each of the three group games, although his opening goal against France suggests he could unlock a slightly shaky Argentina defence. Even so, there are question marks over a defence that didn’t look watertight against Uruguay and Over 2.5 Goals could cop at 6/5 (Boylesports).