ARGENTINA VS CROATIA – WORLD CUP MATCH REVIEW

ARGENTINA VS CROATIA

– WORLD CUP MATCH REVIEW

Argentina vs. Croatia slated to kick off at 7:00pm Nigerian time on the 21st of June, venue is the Nizhny Novgrod stadium.

ARGENTINA

A sparsely populated nation in the northern part of Europe,Iceland, clearly underdogs and underrated have shown a lot of discipline as they continue to improve. Their rise to this world stage has been truly remarkable. They qualified two years ago for the first time for an international tournament. They defeated England in the knock out round, after a number of wins in the group stages.

The held South American giants Argentina to a well-deserved draw in their first game in their first ever world cup outing. England would be feeling better as the pain from their loss to this team has been lessened. Considering that the Argentines couldn’t get past them either. They beat Croatia to the top spot during the qualification at the group stage.

On paper the Argentine’s are superior, and were expecting to have a relatively easy game but it turned out to be a real clash. Unlike anything they expected.

Sergio Aguero put them ahead early enough thanks to a solo effort, but the Europeans were far from discouraged as they pulled one back five minutes later. For 75 minutes Argentina couldn’t find a route into their defense while their own defense line weren’t impressive themselves.

The result after 90 minutes read 1-1, a pretty good result for the world cup debutants. Meanwhile for Argentina it is a very poor result which they would want to overturn in this next fixture, Argentina vs. Croatia.

CROATIA

Playing a very inconsistent Nigerian team, had a better opening match as they deservedly won by two goals to nil with one goal in each half. The Africans never really threatened the Croatians at the back and that loss sees them sitting at the bottom of the group with no competition.

Croatia find themselves top of the group and in a very comfortable state going into this game. With as little as a draw they could find themselves qualifying top of the group. So if they do beat Iceland in the final game, then their knockout draw could be very favorable.

Punters would over placed Argentina as the favorites of this tournament, but with the shape of things at the moment a draw with Croatia is very likely.

PREVIOUS GAMES

The Argentines have won just four of their last ten games, losing two notable matches against Nigeria and Spain, 2-0 and 6-1 respectively. It only goes to show that the array of world class strikers haven’t jelled as a unit.

Meanwhile Croatia have lost just two of their last nine games, losing none of their last five games in major tournaments under regular time. Some of their notable victories include Spain and Turkey and an agonizing defeat in extra time to Portugal.

EXPECTATION

All things being equal Croatia should go all out to nick this one, considering that for Argentina this game is a must win. This reason could cause them to be vulnerable at the back as they go all out in search of goals. A Croatia win or draw won’t be farfetched as they will be looking to link up with Mario Mandzukic upfront, the Juventus man is yet to score in this tournament.

PREDICTED LINEUP

ARGENTINA

Caballero, Mercado, Otamendi, Tagliafico, Salvio, Acuna, Perez, Mascherano, Messi, Aguero, Pavon.

CROATIA

Subasic, Vrsalko, Lovren, Vida, Strinic, Rakitic, Brozovic, Perisic, Modric, Rebic, Mandzukic.

PICK

Away to score @1.55