Argentina face Croatia in what is expected to be a thrilling World Cup semifinal clash at Lusail Stadium on Tuesday night.
La Albiceleste have never been eliminated from the World Cup in the final four and have progressed to the final every time that they have got this far – the fifth and most recent of which came in the 2014 tournament before their heartbreaking defeat to Germany.
Lionel Scaloni’s gallant goalscorers enter the semi-finals having made the net ripple twice in each of their last four matches in all tournaments – scoring in each of their last 14 in total – but facing the staunch rearguard action of Croatia is a challenge that Messi and co must prepare for with due diligence.
Speaking ahead of Tuesday’s clash, Scaloni said they have worked out how to hurt Croatia.
“They have troubled many national teams. I won’t mention the key players or their strengths and weaknesses but we’ve analysed where we can hurt them. Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” Scaloni told reporters on the eve of the first semi-final.
“We try to give it all on the pitch. Sometimes luck can be on your side. If we have a good performance, we’ll have an easier road to reach our objective. But this is football, this is sport, so sometimes the best team may not win.”
Lionel Messi pose a great threat for Croatia because of his speed and vision, but striker Bruno Petkovic says they won’t become obsessed with stopping just one player.
“We don’t have a specific plan yet for stopping Messi and usually we don’t concentrate on stopping one player but the entire team,” Petkovic told reporters on Sunday.
“We will try to stop them as a team and not with man-marking. Argentina are not only Messi, they have a number of great players. We have to stop the entire Argentina team.”
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