On Tuesday evening, all eyes will be on Lusail Stadium, which will host the first two semi-finals of the Qatar World Cup 2022 between Argentina, led by its legend Lionel Messi, and Croatia, who is counting on veteran Luka Modric and his companions.
The Argentine national team dreams of reaching the final and winning the title that has been absent from its coffers since 1986, in the last attempt by Messi, who was unable to obtain this glory despite his busy career and dozens of tournaments, titles and awards over nearly two decades.
Argentina vs Croatia match
Argentina’s start in the Qatar World Cup was not ideal, because he received a great shock by losing the first match in the group stage against Saudi Arabia 1-2, but he soon woke up and beat Mexico and Poland to reach the final price, topping his group.
In the final price round, “Tango” did not find much difficulty in resolving its match with Australia and won 2-1, before going into a violent match against the Netherlands in the quarter-finals, in which it needed penalty kicks, which witnessed the brilliance of goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez.
As for the Croatian national team, it started its tournament quietly, as Dalic’s men qualified second in the Group F competitions, behind Morocco, with two draws with the “Atlas Lions” and Belgium, and a victory over Canada.
In the final price, his young goalkeeper, Dominik Levakovic, emerged as a hero when he starred in a penalty shootout against Japan and led his country to the semi-finals.
The same penalty shootout scenario was repeated in the quarter-finals, this time at the expense of Brazil in an unexpected surprise, but Levakovic was present again, and contributed to reaching the semi-finals.
The two teams recall the World Cup “Russia 2018” when they faced each other in the group stage, and at that time Croatia achieved a wide victory, as it swept the South American giant with three clean goals scored by Ante Rebic, Modric and Ivan Rakitic, and then Croatia topped the group with 9 full points, and Messi and his companions had to wait until the round. Concluding to clinch their qualification by defeating Nigeria 2-1.
When Croatia reached the semi-finals in 1998 in its first World Cup participation after independence from Yugoslavia, it also passed Argentina, but the result was then in favor of “Albiceleste” with a goal scored by Ector Pineda in the group stage.
Messi expects a strong game and Dalic warns
Messi said before the Croatia match, “We are among the best 4 teams in the tournament, because we showed match after match that we know how to play every match with the same intensity and the desire to fight and focus, we all run despite the suffering and fatigue, and we do it for all these people who accompany us here.” “.
He added, “We expect the Croatia match to be strong. Croatia proved that they are a good team by defeating Brazil, and we saw that if you let them play they have very good players who keep the ball, especially in the middle of the field. It is a team that has been working for a long time with its coach, Dalic.”
As for Dalic, he said that his country hopes that Argentina’s misconduct in the quarter-final match against the Netherlands – with 16 yellow cards and one red card – will not spoil the atmosphere in the semi-final.
Croatia suffered from Argentina’s mood swings during their group match at the 2018 World Cup, as Argentine coach Jorge Sampaoli at the time refused to shake hands with Dalic.
But Dalic said he did not hold any grudges.
“I don’t get mad at anyone who goes through an emotional state of mind. The Argentina vs. Netherlands game was very difficult with a lot of non-football behaviour. I really hope that’s not the case on Tuesday.”