Argentina vs Croatia Semi final -World Cup:Team news,Talking points,Recent form, H2H & Predicted lineups

Argentina vs Croatia semifinals fifa world cup 2022

Argentina will face Croatia at Lusail Iconic Stadium at 19:00 UTC in the first match of semi finals in the world cup.

Both teams won the penalty shootout to reach Semi-finals.Crotia beat Brazil in a shoot-out while Argentina beat Netherlands.

Argentina lost to Saudi Arabia in the first match but made a good comeback to reach the semi-finals.

Argentina is hoping for their captain Lionel Messi. With 4 goals, 2 assists and three man of the match awards in this tournament, Leo has been performing well in the World Cup this time.

Another senior player Angel di Maria is also expected to appear in the Semi-finals along with Messi.He was injured in the last game against the Netherlands.Argentina’s defense has been playing very consistently in this tournament.

Croatia, on the other hand, are pinning their hopes on their captain.Luka Modric is still playing well.

Croatia will be going into today with the confidence of beating Brazil.Good team chemistry will lead Croatia forward. Argentina will struggle to beat Croatia, a young and experienced team.

In any case, a great fight can be expected at the Lusail Iconic Stadium.

TEAM NEWS

Argentina

#SelecciónMayor Último entrenamiento de la Selección Argentina antes de enfrentarse a Croacia

📋 https://t.co/f9b7d3kaFX pic.twitter.com/9QVpYDVoQ3

— Selección Argentina 🇦🇷 (@Argentina) December 12, 2022

Argentina’s only injury concern is Angel Di Maria, who only came on for the last few minutes against Netherlands.he will be expected to start against Croatia.

Marcos Acuna and Gonzalo Montiel are both suspended after picking up two yellow cards each.Nahuel Molina and Nicolas Tagliafico will replace them.

Croatia

Not just any matchday.
An epic matchday.
The #FIFAWorldCup semifinals.

Let’s do this, #Croatia! 🙌#Qatar2022 #Family #Vatreni❤️‍🔥 pic.twitter.com/MagqaM22OT

— HNS (@HNS_CFF) December 13, 2022

Though Croatia have no injury or suspension problems, legs will be heavy after two ties that went to extra time and penalties, with coach Zlatko Dalic expected to wait till the last minute to name his side.

TALKING POINTS

– This is the third World Cup meeting between Argentina and Croatia, and first in the knockout stages. Argentina won 1-0 in 1998, before Croatia’s 3-0 win in the 2018 edition in Russia.

– Argentina are looking to reach the World Cup final for the sixth time, a figure bettered only by Germany (8). They’ve never been eliminated at the semi-final stage before, most recently beating the Netherlands in 2014.

– Croatia were losing finalists in 2018, and could become the fourth European nation to reach consecutive World Cup finals after Italy (1934, 1938), Netherlands (1974, 1978) and Germany (1982, 1986, 1990).

– Following their penalty shootout victory against Brazil in the quarter-final, Croatia could become just the second side to eliminate both Brazil and Argentina from the knockout stages of the same World Cup, after Germany in 2014.

– Argentina have won just one of their last seven World Cup games against European sides (D3 L3), beating Poland 2-0 in the group stages this year. However, two of those three draws have resulted in penalty shootout victories.

H2H

Argentina: 2 Wins

Croatia: 2 Wins

Draws: 1

RECENT FORM

Argentina: LWWWW

Croatia: DWDWW

PREDICTED LINEUPS

Argentina: Martinez; Molina, Romero, Otamendi, Tagliafico; De Paul, Fernandez, Mac Allister; Di Maria, Messi, Lautaro

Croatia: Livakovic; Juranovic, Lovren, Gvardiol, Sosa; Modric, Brozovic, Kovacic; Kramaric, Petkovic, Perisic.

Predicted Score: Argentina 3-0 Croatia