Croatia specializes in winning through a long formula.
Croatia’s football team in striped shirts is synonymous with “extra time”.
Current head coach Zlatko Dalić When he took over the task in October 2017, he already prepared a combination with a focus on overtime.
The trend started in the summer of 2008, when Croatia stretched its own European Championship quarter-final against Turkey all the way to the knockout stages.
The team was still training then. 22-year-old top prospect of Dinamo Zagreb Luka Modric failed as the first host, and Turkey advanced to the EC semi-finals.
Since then, Croatia has gone to at least extra time in seven of the next eight European Championship or World Cup playoff matches.
The team has had particularly hard luck in the European championships. In 2016, its tournament ended with an overtime loss to Portugal, and in the summer of last year, the pick-up came at the same quarter-final stage against Spain.
La Roja’s winning goal was completed by Alvaro Morata in the first half of overtime.
A tough threesome
Croatia has won all four grueling races in its World Cup history. PDO
In the World Cup, however, Dalić has developed a long formula of playing as Croatia’s weapon. Already in Russia four years ago, the team progressed all the way to the final with two knockout stage wins (Denmark and Russia) and by beating England in the semifinals in overtime.
In the first playoff round in Qatar, it looked like the team was left by Ivan Perišić after the handicap, just to wait for the tough race, for which it was clearly better prepared than Japan.
In the match against Brazil, Croatia only had to invest in attack Neymar’s After scoring the opening goal in the 105th minute. Bruno Petkovic equalized during the last quarter, and we went to points again.
This time, Modrić, who has grown to 37 years old, succeeded and made it to the World Cup semi-finals.
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Luka Modrić made his debut in Croatia’s national team shirt in the match against Argentina. PDO
– Mateo, Luka and Marcelo form the best midfield in Croatian history. There will surely never be anything like it again. Passing the ball to them is safer than putting money in the bank, quarterback Josip Juranović praised Kovačić, Modrić and Brozović.
Argentina favorite
Opposing Argentina will probably have a stronger attack, but in the midfield, the Albiceleste cannot match the Balkans’ security on the ball.
In addition, Croatia’s unyielding attitude and disciplined team ethos make it a truly loathsome opponent.
It’s not the favorite in tonight’s match, but that’s exactly why the team is at its most dangerous.
Argentina also advanced to this semi-final with a penalty shootout win. But it will certainly want to avoid facing Croatia in the penalty shootout, as the opponent’s record shows four wins and no defeats in the knockout stages of World Cup tournaments.
– It’s about mental toughness. No one has experienced similar pressure before, Petković said.
– Of course, it helps us that we have a world-class goalkeeper, he praised Dominik Livaković.
A chilling statistic
It is already clear that Croatia must be counted as one of the football superpowers. The country gained independence from the Balkan powder keg at the end of 1991, but Fifa banned it from participating in the qualifiers for the 1994 World Cup tournament in the USA.
The striped shirts made their debut in France in 1998 immediately with the World Cup bronze and have now continued the tradition with the 2018 silver and today’s World Cup semi-final.
In addition to that, only Brazil, France and Germany have reached three semi-finals in the same period (the latter two have four World Cup semi-finals). And every time Croatia has made it past the initial group, it has also progressed all the way to the medal games.
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Dominik Livaković has risen to the star category of futsal with his penalty saves. PDO
Croatia gets into the match without suspensions and injury concerns. Argentina head coach by Lionel Scaloni the defense line must be rebuilt Gonzalo Montiel and Marcos Acuña after the card account is full.
Four years ago, Scaloni was Argentina’s second coach in Nizhny Novgorod, when the teams last met at the World Cup level. At that time, there was no extra time in the first group.
Croatia won 3–0 directly in 90 minutes.