Argentina faces a difficult task as they confront Croatia in the second Group D tie of the FIFA World Cup at the Nizhny Novgorod Stadium on Thursday.
Both teams will be aiming to claim the three points in a bid to brighten their chances of qualifying to the knockout stages of the competition.
The Albeceleste side will be relying on Sergio Aguero, Higuain and Lionel Messi to shoulder the team goal-scoring responsibilities. While Croatia will be banking on world-class talents such as Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic among their ranks to unlock the Argentina defence.
Argentina were World Cup winners in 1978 and 1986 and were beaten finalists on three occasions. They are 14-time winners of Copa America. This is the 17th time they are participating in the event.
This is Croatia’s 5th World Cup appearance. Davor Suker and Co’s feats from 1998 World Cup is still talked about to this day. It will come as a big surprise if this team can match that feat.
Meanwhile, Croatia manager Zlatko Dalic has admitted that it's not possible to stop Argentina star, Lionel Messi.
“Messi is the best player in the world, it's not possible to stop him,” Dalic said.
“We have to stop the ball from getting to him because when he receives the ball, it's very very difficult to stop him.”
