WC-2022: Argentina, unbeaten in the semi-finals, Croatia's second consecutive final attempt

WC-2022: Argentina, unbeaten in the semi-finals, Croatia's second consecutive final attempt
The national teams of Argentina and Croatia, who will face each other in the semi-final stage of the world championship held in Qatar, have competed against each other twice in the history of the world championships.

According to Qazet.az reports, in 1998, the "tango players" won 1:0, in 2018, the Europeans won with three unanswered goals.

The South Americans, who are aiming to reach their sixth final, have been favorites in their previous five semi-final appearances. Argentina won the 2014 World Cup against the Netherlands and advanced to the finals. The two-time world champions have won just one of their last seven matches (3 losses, 3 draws) against the representatives of the old continent in the tournament. In the group stage of the World Cup-2022, the team, which beat Poland by two unanswered goals, passed the penalty shootout stage in two of the three matches that ended in a draw.

The 2018 finalists in Russia are aiming to become the fourth European team (Italy - 1934-1938, Netherlands - 1974-1978, Germany - 1982-1986-1990) to do so twice in a row. The "checkers" who knocked out the Brazilian team in the 1/4 finals can become the second national team to win both Argentina and the "samba players" in one World Cup. Only in 2014, the winner of the tournament, Germany, managed to do this.

This match could also be significant for Argentina's Lionel Messi and Croatia's Luka Modric. If Messi starts the match in the starting line-up, he will go down in history and reach Germany's Lothar Matteus (25), who has played the most games in the history of world championships. Modric, who was in the "first 11" in the previous five matches of the WC-2022, will become the fourth player (Nilton Santos, Dino Zoff and Peter Shilton) to achieve this for the 6th time in a row after the age of 37.

It should be noted that the Argentina-Croatia game will start at 23:00 Baku time.