Football Results

his match in the first round of group D of the World Cup in Russia attracts a lot of attention because it is played between two teams that are fighting for the second place which leads to the knockout stage, with the proviso that a lot more experienced Croatia is given a lot bigger chance than Nigeria. Namely, the current world vice-champion, Argentina, is obviously the favourite in this duel, so the remaining three teams should actually decide on the second passenger in the round of sixteen. We should also note that this is the first mutual duel between Croatia and Nigeria in history

Croatia

However, we have already said in the introduction that Croatia has a much more experienced team than Nigeria, and that should certainly be their biggest advantage in this match, of course with the proviso that the Croatians also have several top players playing in the strongest European clubs, like Modric, Rakitic, Perisic and Mandzukic. Otherwise, this is the fifth performance for Croatia in the world championship, while they in 1998 in France even they came to third place, while they were in the remaining three usually eliminated after the group stage, including the last World Cup in Brazil. In addition, they became regular participants in European championships, but their greatest success was placement in the quarterfinals.

As for their performance in qualifiers for this World Cup, they first took second place in their group, behind the team of Iceland, with whom they are now together in the group in Russia, while they in the playoffs without any big problems eliminated the team of Greece. After that, they played defensively in the friendly matches and were defeated by Peru and Brazil with 2-0, while they celebrated with 1-0 over Mexico and eight days ago at home with 2-1 over Senegal, which was actually a general check for this duel with Nigeria. That is why we believe that coach Dalic will now send a similar lineup on Saturday as against Senegal, especially since Hoffenheim’s striker, Kramaric, has quite imposed himself lately.

Probable lineups Croatia: Subasic – Vrsaljko, Vida, Lovren, Strinic – Rakitic, Modric – Brozovic, Kramaric, Perisic – Mandzukic

Nigeria

As for Nigeria, this is their sixth match in the world championships, and the first time they appeared was in 1994 and they have since only missed the World Cup in 2006 in Germany. Otherwise, they managed to pass the group stage three times, including the last World Cup in Brazil, but then every time they hit the eighth finals, and it is also very interesting to note that this is the fifth time they are together in the group with Argentina, which has defeated them five times. However, at the end of last year, they were able to at least partially revenge in the Russian Krasnodar when they defeated them with 4-2 in a friendly match, while in March they were even better than the Poles with 1-0.

However, in the last four friendly duels they have even suffered three defeats, from Serbia, England and the Czech Republic, while they only played a draw with DR Congo, so their coach Rohr cannot be satisfied with the current form of his players. However, in the qualifiers for this SP they showed some great games because they were in a very difficult group with Algiers, Cameroon and Zambia, but they eventually took the first place, after four wins and two draws and thus qualified for the final tournament as the first African team. As for their duel with Croatia, it is expected that Rohr will set a somewhat more defensive tactic than usual, especially since he during the preparations for the World Cup in Russia remained without one of the standard members of the starting lineup, striker Simon.

Probable lineups Nigeria: Uzoho – Shehu, Troost-Ekong, Omeruo, Idowu – Ndidi, Onazi – Moses, Mikel, Iwobi – Ighalo

Verdict:

Considering that Nigeria has shown a rather bad form in their last friendly matches, the experienced Croatia should at the start of the World Cup in Russia surely take advantage of that to come to key points for placement in the next round, especially since their last friendly match ended with 2-1 against extremely unpleasant African team, Senegal.

Pick: Croatia wins 1.79 - 79/100 @1XBet