Croatia Battle Brazil, Argentina, Netherlands Lock Horns For Berth In Semi-finals

After a thrilling group stage and roller-coaster round of 16, the 2022 World Cup quarter-finalists are into the business end of the tournament with eight teams remaining. There’s plenty of star power, great matchups and top players who all have their eyes set on lifting the coveted trophy on Sunday, December 18.

Croatia are up against Brazil in the first quarterfinal match this afternoon in a meeting between two teams that delivered contrasting displays to make it into the World Cup last 8.

While Croatia laboured through 120 minutes and penalties to squeak past Japan, Brazil’s second-round match against South Korea was over as a contest after 12 minutes, eventually rattling in four audacious first-half goals.

Brazil and Croatia have played each other five times, with Brazil unbeaten winning three and drawing two. One of their two draws came when the nations first met, in a 1996 friendly that ended 1-1, a scoreline that was repeated when they played a second friendly in 2005. A year later came the first of two World Cup encounters, at Germany 2006, where Brazil won 1-0. Eight years later, Neymar scored twice in a 3-1 victory for A Seleção at Brazil 2014. The No10 was on target again when the South Americans beat Croatia 2-0 in a Russia 2018 warm-up.

Croatia didn’t impress this year at the World Cup and with just one normal-time win so far at the Qatar 2022, they hope to fight off the fatigue that came with their penalty-shootout defeat of Japan and surprise Brazil in today’s quarter-final.

Left-back Borna Sosa is still an injury doubt for Croatia, with Borna Barisic set to replace him if he is ruled out. Coach Zlatko Dalic is also pondering his options up front, where three different players have led the line: Andrej Kramaric against Morocco, Marko Livaja against Canada and Belgium, and Bruno Petkovic against Japan. Livaja may well get the nod against Brazil, with Kramaric deployed in a wider role.

As for Brazil, left-back Alex Sandro is back in contention following his injury problems, as is right-back Danilo, whose return would see Eder Militao drop to the bench. Alex Telles and Gabriel Jesus are out of the competition.

Meanwhile, Lionel Messi’s bid for a first World Cup glory continues on Friday when Argentina take on the Netherlands in a hotly anticipated quarterfinal in Qatar which is also a replay of some classic matches.

Louis van Gaal was coach eight years ago when the Netherlands missed out on the Brazil final following a penalty shoot-out defeat to their old foes.

Van Gaal had Arjen Robben and Robin van Persie at his disposal while peak Messi was on the field for Argentina, but the two teams cancelled each other out in a match of few opportunities.

Ron Vlaar missed the Dutch’s first penalty and Wesley Sneijder handed Argentina the chance for victory by missing their third, the final World Cup act of his career.

Argentina would go on to lose to Germany in the final and their World Cup drought now stands at 36 years, while the Dutch only returned to the tournament eight years later.

Speaking ahead of the quarter-final match, Virgil van Dijk was adamant that the match wasn’t a battle of his against Lionel Messi, adding his team would be cautious in their approach against the Argentina superstar.

The Dutch skipper stayed on message while fielding a flurry of questions about how the Netherlands will deal with the threat of Messi at the Lusail Stadium: it will be a team effort.

“It’s not about me, or the Netherlands, against Messi, it’s about the Netherlands against Argentina,” Van Dijk said at a news conference Wednesday.

In response to a question about how worried they might be about the threat of the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner, Van Dijk said: “Worried no, but cautious of what Argentina can bring to the game.

“They are a fantastic team with fantastic players, and we are going to have to do well in all departments of the match.”

He agreed that his side could have played better in Qatar up to this point, despite not losing a game and winning their group, but diplomatically dodged a question about whether criticism of their performances back home was typically Dutch..