World Cup · Head-to-head

Matchups

Pick two nations and see their projected XIs face off on the pitch. Turn your phone sideways for the full landscape view. Greener = more talent.

vs
THE BOX SCORE·World Cup Head-to-head
ARG91.9vs94.1FRA
Line
Goalkeepers9094
Defenders354372
Midfielders277274
Forwards278289
EM
E. Martínez90
NM
N. Molina85
CR
C. Romero93
LM
L. Martínez92
NT
N. Tagliafico84
EF
E. Fernández93
NP
N. Paz91
AA
A. Mac Allister93
LM
L. Messi93
J. Álvarez95
AG
A. Garnacho90
MM
M. Maignan94
JK
J. Koundé91
WS
W. Saliba95
DU
D. Upamecano93
TH
T. Hernández93
AT
A. Tchouaméni94
WZ
W. Zaïre-Emery90
EC
E. Camavinga90
MO
M. Olise96
KM
K. Mbappé98
OD
O. Dembélé95
ARG
FRA
the-box-score.com/wcArgentina vs France

Both projected XIs in a 4-3-3, facing off. The pitch flips between vertical and horizontal with your device orientation. Each player's avatar is colored by talent rating, so greener is stronger. XIs are each squad's best-rated player per position.

How to read this page

How the XI and line totals are built

Each side of the pitch is that squad's strongest XI, selected by player rating into a common 4-3-3 shape so two teams are always compared like-for-like — a back three wouldn't make the comparison fairer, just harder to read. Player ratings come from the same method as the talent board: transfer market value corrected for age and position, scaled 0–99 (full write-up in how it works).

Line totals over headline totals

The per-line sums — goalkeeper, defense, midfield, attack — are usually more honest than a single aggregate. Tournament sides tend to be lopsided: an elite attack in front of a mid-tier defense plays very differently from the same total spread evenly, and the line view shows exactly where a squad would need the game to be played. Bench depth matters too, and it's deliberately not in this view — this is the best-XI ceiling, not a squad-depth rating.

Where to take it next

Every fixture on the schedule links its own head-to-head, each squad has a full roster page with every player rated, and the bracket shows the knockout path. The comparison works for any pair of the 48 teams, whether or not they can actually meet.