Croatia and Argentina will meet in Nizhny Novgorod on Thursday, June 21.
It’s still too early to expect the current national team to replicate the success of Croatia ’98, and it’s still too soon to fully cave into football euphoria. With a (hopefully) long road ahead and with luck not always on our side in major competitions, staying humble (yet hopeful) is key. What we can do, however, is use Croatia’s strengths to formulate positive scenarios about how they will get out of the group – and one way to do that is to muster up reasons why Croatia will not surrender to Argentina in their second group match on Thursday.
Here are the five reasons why, according to Goal.hr on June 17, 2018.
Argentina does not have a midfield, the wingers will have space
“Okay, Argentina has Messi and a dangerous attack, and the rest? When I look at the midfield and the defense, they do not even have class! They are just assisted players,” Robert Prosinečki said before the World Cup began, and Argentina drawing to Iceland confirmed the observation of the football genius.
Fabio Capello was even sharper, arguing that Argentina’s connection was too slow and the team is not steady.
Croatia will not dominate the game or hold possession, Argentina will – but they will especially attack, leaving more space for Croatia’s killer wingers Perišić and Rebić.
The pressure is on Argentina
“This will be the easiest match of the World Cup,” Croatia coach Zlatko Dalić said after the World Cup draw and again after the first game. Dalić might have said this because he knows that this is a match where Croatia has nothing to lose, leaving them to play freely, openly, and without pressure.
Furthermore, the Croatian team has shown communion in the dressing room, the atmosphere is brilliant, and there is the support of millions of Croatian fans around the world.
On the other hand, the pressure on Messi to carry Argentina has already forced him to miss a penalty against Iceland – and after drawing in their first game, there is even more pressure weighing on the team heading into the second game.
Good results against the best
How exactly does Croatia do against top-ranking rivals in major competitions? In 14 duels, Croatia has five wins, two draws, and seven defeats. That’s not bad at all, especially for games where they’re not the favorite to win…
Croatia against the top teams in big competitions
Croatia – Germany 1:2 (Quarterfinal of Euro 1996)
Croatia – Argentina 0:1 (1998 World Cup group stage)
Croatia – Germany 3:0 (Quarterfinal of the 1998 World Cup)
Croatia – France 1:2 (Semifinal of 1998 World Cup)
Croatia – Netherlands 2:1 (3rd place in 1998 World Cup)
Croatia – Italy 2:1 (2002 World Cup group stage)
Croatia – France 2:2 (2004 Euro group stage)
Croatia – England 2:4 (2004 Euro group stage)
Croatia – Brazil 0:1 (2006 World Cup group)
Croatia – Germany 2:1 (2008 Euro group stage)
Croatia – Italy 1:1 (2012 Euro group stage)
Croatia – Spain 0:1 (2012 Euro group stage)
Croatia – Brazil 1:3 (2014 World Cup group stage)
Croatia – Spain 2:1 (2016 Euro group stage)
The pressure this time is much higher against Argentina, and in the event of a defeat, they can easily fall out of the group.
Croatia has never lost their second match
Croatia has passed through the group stage four times in major competitions in the history of the country. Three of the times the recipe was the same: after winning the first match, they celebrated in the second and went on to the knockout phase.
In 1996, after defeating Turkey they demolished Denmark; in 1998 after Jamaica it was Japan, and in 2008 after overcoming Austria it was Germany.
There are two exceptions: in 2016 after defeating Turkey, Croatia went on to draw against the Czech Republic and still passed the group – and in 2012 when Croatia only celebrated the opening match against Ireland (3:1) and did not advance.
Additionally, Croatia achieves the best results in the second games of major competitions – and they’ve never lost!
Croatia has five wins (Denmark, Japan, Italy, Germany, and Cameroon) and four draws (France, Japan, Italy and the Czech Republic).
The fans will be even louder
True, Nizhny Novgorod is further away than Kaliningrad – and from Zagreb, it’s around 2750 km. But it’s still even farther away from Argentina.
Argentina has more fans around the world than Nigeria, but Croatia has some of the best fans who have traveled to Wembley, Klagenfurt, Berlin, Lyon, Paris, and Kaliningrad, among many others.
One scientific study has shown that players give 11 percent more when they have, hear and feel the support of fans, and we will certainly hear ours in Novgorod.
