Argentina – Croatia

Argentina faces Croatia in a match from Group D of the FIFA World Cup in Russia. Let’s have a look at this clash in our winning soccer predictions for today.

Times are not easy for the Albiceleste, who reached the World Cup final four years ago in Brazil. Argentina are not in their best condition at the moment and we all saw this during the 1-1 draw with Iceland in the first round. The South Americans opened the score with a fine goal by Sergio Aguero, but soon after this Iceland leveled the score. The most defining moment came in the second half, when Argentina’s captain Lionel Messi missed a penalty kick.

But the result against Iceland was not the only problem for the Albiceleste. The bigger problem is what the team showed and how bad it was. If we can describe Argentina’s performance against Iceland with one word, it shall be average. Yes – they created some chances to score, but in most of the time Jorge Sampaoli’s team didn’t look very good on the pitch.

This is why most probably we are going to see Sampaoli making some changes. Many journalists and pundits are reporting that most likely the coach is going to change his formation against Croatia. Against Iceland Sampaoli used a classic 4-4-2 formation, but this didn’t lead to anything good for the Albiceleste. They lacked creativity in their game and it was hard for the Argentine players to create chances. Based on what we read in the press, it’s very likely to see Argentina changing their formation to 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 against Croatia. Of course, this is not a confirmed information, so we shall wait and see what Sampaoli is going to decide.

One thing is for sure – Argentina needs to find some inspiration in order to beat Croatia. The captain of the team Lionel Messi is the man who has to lead his teammates. Messi was well guarded against Iceland, but he shall have more free space against Croatia. The Balkan team have more offensive approach than the Vikings, so we shall see them attacking more as well. If Messi wants to help his team reach the knockout phase of the World Cup, he really needs to step up and show what he’s capable of. If it doesn’t happen, it’s going to be very hard for Argentina to win against the strong Croatian team.

Just like most of us expected, Croatia started their participation at the World Cup with a win against Nigeria. The Vatreni enjoyed a 2-0 win against the African Super Eagles. Etebo from the Nigerian team scored himself an own goal, while Real Madrid’s Luca Modric made it 2-0 after a well executed penalty kick.

It’s hard to say that Croatia showed their best face against Nigeria, but in the first round for them it was most important to win and take the three points. This is what they did, which allowed Croatia to lead the group.

After winning the first game against Nigeria, probably the Croatian manager Zlatko Dalic won’t make any major changes against Argentina. Of course, this is an opponent of a bigger quality than the Nigerian team, but when it works, you don’t try to fix it.

These are our winning soccer predictions for today for the World Cup game from Group D between Argentina and Croatia. This is a tough moment for the Argentine team, which didn’t show a good face against Iceland. For Croatia on the other hand a win could mean reaching the 1/8-finals. It’s a pretty good reward.